A01=Steven M. Gelber
Author_Steven M. Gelber
automobile
bargaining
car dealers
Category=JBFS
Category=KJS
Category=KNP
Category=WGCB
consumers
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
gender
horse trading
negotiating
retail
salesmen
transportation
Product details
- ISBN 9780801889974
- Weight: 499g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 26 Nov 2008
- Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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The trading, selling, and buying of personal transport has changed little over the past one hundred years. Whether horse trading in the early twentieth century or car buying today, haggling over prices has been the common practice of buyers and sellers alike. Horse Trading in the Age of Cars offers a fascinating study of the process of buying an automobile in a historical and gendered context. Steven M. Gelber convincingly demonstrates that the combative and frequently dishonest culture of the showroom floor is a historical artifact whose origins lie in the history of horse trading. Bartering and bargaining were the norm in this predominantly male transaction, with both buyers and sellers staking their reputations and pride on their ability to negotiate the better deal. Gelber comments on this point-of-sale behavior and what it reveals about American men. Gelber's highly readable and lively prose makes clear how this unique economic ritual survived into the industrial twentieth century, in the process adding a colorful and interesting chapter to the history of the automobile.
Steven M. Gelber is a professor of history at Santa Clara University and author of Hobbies: Productive Leisure and the Culture of Work in America.
