Published Books
Retail and consumer culture have been powerful forces that have transformed lives in northern North America. These books explore aspects of these histories.
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Purchasing Power: Women and the Rise of Consumer Culture. By Donica Belisle. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020
Why do Canadians consume? This book answers this question by bringing white settler women's consumer interests to the fore.
At the beginning of the 1900s, most such women were excluded from politics and paid employment. As a result, many turned toward shopping and consumption. They sought solutions to isolation and unhappiness in the marketplace. Along the way, they politicized consumption.
Yet if they saw consumption as a tool of empowerment, so did they wield it as a tool of exclusion. In this way, white female consumers defined who – and who did not – belong in modern Canada.
Available from University of Toronto Press, Chapters, Amazon.
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Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada. By Donica Belisle. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011.
This book charts how mass retail emerged in modern Canada. Exploring the histories of Eaton's, Simpson's, and the Hudson's Bay Company's department stores, as well as such regional stores as Woodward's and the Dupuis Freres, this book offers a comprehensive history of Canada's biggest retailers.
*Winner, Pierre Savard Award in Canadian Studies, International Council for Canadian Studies
*Winner, Best Book in Canadian Studies, Canadian Studies Network
*Honourable Mention, Sir John A. MacDonald Prize, Canadian Historical Association.
*Shortlist, John W. Dafoe Book Prize, J. W. Dafoe Foundation