The holiday makers: magazines, advertising, and mass tourism in postwar America

Abstract

holiday makers: magazines, advertising, and mass tourism in postwar America, by Richard K. Popp, Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 2012, ix+204pp., US$39.95 (hardcover), ISBN 978-0-8071-4284-4 The Holiday Makers: Magazines, Advertising, and Mass Tourism in Postwar America by Richard K. Popp provides an in-depth analysis of the rise and fall of mass tourism in mid-century America. practices of vacationing are examined from various perspectives--as key features of modern, mobile society, as symbols of alleged classlessness, and as practices in the service of cold war (i.e. advertising standards of and capitalism). author illuminates the introduction of mass tourism as in Protestant culture, based on asceticism and strong work ethic. early developments of mass tourism combined both Protestant work ethics and the of leisure, where travel represents kind of Cinderella fantasy (i.e. well deserved but long deferred gratification after many years of long, dull life of unrecognized sacrifice) (p. 61). Further, the author is elevating tourism from merely leisure time and illuminating it as powerful tool of political propaganda and effective instrument for relieving social, political and economic tensions. At the domestic level, the tourism served as cure against socio-economic inequalities and class antagonism of society. It represented the possibility for both geographical and social mobility, the transgression both of physical state borders and social barriers between classes, as well as an arena where regular workers mingle with wealthy merchants or foreign ambassadors. tourism offered temporary escape into classless existence and served as a healthy way for workers to vent their social frustration (p. 47). author illuminates the confluences of tourism, media and politics. He notes that magazine writers and editors seized on the most sensational aspects of vacation habits but not the most representative (p. 70). widely celebrated accounts of Brooklyn postal employee who booked flight around the world (p. 62) or Claire Robins sponsoring two-week trip to Havana, Cuba, for his employees (p. 65) planted seeds of desire into popular imaginations but stood in contrast to working and middle-class realities. It illuminates the duping and pacifying effects of culture industries, as summarized by Theodor Adomo--freedom is symbolized by the arbitrary selection of the average person, who is completely expendable, and ideology conceals itself in the calculation of probabilities (Adomo and Horkheimer 2002). author reveals the significant role the tourism played both at domestic and international level. In the Cold War context, the of Everyman Everywhere or of Mobile man (p. 71) positioned mobile society as counter image to immobile, static Soviet societies. Tourism was in servitude of as American tourists advertised the standard of living (p. 76). Outgoing tourism was important because of its performative aspects--tourists were seen as representatives of capitalism abroad, and were trained in advance to demonstrate the capitalist advantages. For example, General Electric workers French language lessons, as well as tutorials on proper dress and comportment (p. 65) before embarking on three-week tour in Europe. It is particularly interesting, as similar tours were arranged for the propaganda purposes in the Soviet Union, and workers received lessons in political education, guidance for dress code and good manners before leaving to London or Paris (Gorsuch, 2011). …