Until very recently the social history of consumption was virtually ignored by professional historians. It was only during the 1980s - a decade which witnessed the celebration and deification of the consumer - that this subject began to attract serious scholarly attention. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach and employing a variety of primary as well as secondary source material (film and advertisements as well as written texts) this module explores both the origins and development of the 'consumer society' and also what is meant by that term.