"More than a history of social change and shoplifting. It is a study of consumer culture and technological change, class privilege and gender roles in transition, female criminality and social control....Interesting, well-written, and informative."
American Journal of Sociology "[An] intelligent and intriguing probe into the social history of American shoplifting....A fascinating story, replete with evidence of changing and intersecting class and ... Read moregender relationships. The author tells it inventively and well."
The Journal of American History "Unlike social theorists who view industrial capitalism as a resolute march toward modernity, Ableson offers a far more sophisticated and complex interpretation....Exceptionally provocative and well-conceived."
Business History Review "Interesting and well-written....Well put together and suggestive."
American Historical Review "Abelson offers fresh material...in her lively and eminently readable social history of shoplifting in the United States and, tangentially, Europe....Students of developments and transmutation of gender stereotypes of modern capitalist society will love this book
as will those who ponder the meaning of the glittering and far-flung shopping malls of our own time. Abelson's trenchant comments also illuminate the history of labeling in deviance and its interconnections with social and economic interests."
Contemporary Sociology "Very well written, original, and compelling. It breaks fresh ground and commands the reader's attention."
Daniel Horowitz, Smith College "The outlines of a kleptomania story have been adumbrated, but a full-fledged treatment of the subject has been wanting until the publication of Elaine Abelson's excellent and readablee account of shoplifiting in the Victorian American department store."
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