Making ends meet: clerical workers, consumption, and the collar line in the USA in the 1920s

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the years following the First World War, railroad clerical workers in the United States struggled to participate in the mass consumption marketplace and enjoy the material aspects of middle-class life. Drawing upon letters they wrote to their union in April 1920, this article examines railroad clerks’ family consumption choices, strategies and aspirations. Given the gap between their incomes and their needs and desires, these ‘white-collar’ families made the kinds of marketplace choices and engaged in the kinds of household survival strategies usually associated with the ‘blue-collar’ working class. At the same time, clerks and their families aspired to middle-class lifestyles and strove to achieve ‘white-collar’ patterns of consumption, investing in forms of social and cultural capital that might distinguish them from the manual working class. Viewed through the lens of consumption, railroad clerks’ letters highlight the ambiguity and permeability of the ‘collar line’ at the dawn of the age of mass consumption.