Waste and Want

About this book

"Before the twentieth century, streets and bodies stank, but trash was nearly nonexistent. With goods and money scarce, everything possible was reused."--BOOK JACKET. "In the last hundred years, that way of life has been replaced by mass consumption, disposable goods, and waste on a previously unimaginable scale. Strasser charts the triumph of "disposable" goods - paper cups, toilet paper, packaged food - those signature products of modern life. And she shows how Americans became hooked on convenience, fashion, and constant technological change - as the mountains of garbage rose higher and higher."--Jacket. "Waste and Want recaptures a hidden part of our social history, vividly illustrating that what counts as trash depends on who's counting, and that what we throw away defines us as much as what we keep."--Jacket.