Research Catalog

100 years on the road : the traveling salesman in American culture

Title: 100 years on the road : the traveling salesman in American culture / Timothy B. Spears.
Author: Spears, Timothy B., 1957-
Publication: New Haven : Yale University Press, ©1995.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	HF5441 .S64 1995	Off-site

Details

Description

xx, 300 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"Even today, in Death of a Salesman and The Music Man, the traveling salesman is an intriguing, almost mythic figure. In this lively and vividly illustrated account - the first in-depth study of the traveling salesman, or "drummer" - Timothy Spears investigates the salesman's role in American culture during his heyday, between 1830 and 1920." "Drawing on such sources as diaries, advice manuals, autobiographies, and trade journals, Spears shows how traveling salesmen shaped the customs of life on the road, established the foundations of "scientific salesmanship," and helped to develop modern consumer culture. Spears reconstructs the cultural history of face-to-face sales during this period, describing the nature of traveling life, the development of strategies for selling to the trade rather than door-to-door, and the problematic relationship of the salesman to society - first as the agent of an emergent, intrusive market and later as a target for critics of "vulgar" commercialism. Throughout, Spears offers original and persuasive readings of works by Arthur Miller, Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, Sinclair Lewis, and Eudora Welty and illuminates other cultural representations of the traveling salesman."--BOOK JACKET.

Alternative Title

One hundred years on the road

Subject

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-294) and index.

Contents

Introduction : A rare bird of passage -- The perils of Pearl Street -- But one country -- A grip on the land -- Only a drummer -- For the good of the order -- Sister Carrie and the logic of salesmanship -- The mechanics of consumption -- Conclusion : the death of the salesman.

ISBN

0300059086
9780300059083
0300070667
9780300070668

LCCN

94006070

OCLC

ocm29952683
29952683
SCSB-2046716

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library