An archaeological analysis of the centrality of race and racism in American culture. Using a broad range of material, historical, and ethnographic resources from Annapolis, Maryland, during the period 1850 to 1930, the author probes distinctive African-American consumption patterns and examines how those patterns resisted the racist assumptions of the dominant culture while also attempting to demonstrate African-Americans' suitability to full citizenship privileges.

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1. Racializing Consumer Culture. Racism and Consumption in Annapolis, Maryland. Archaeology and African-American Annapolis. If We Were Black': The Politics of Naming. Race and Consumption. 2. The Politicization and Politics of African-American Consumption. Partisan Politics and African-American Material Politicization. Politicizing Consumer Culture: The Politics of Consumption, or the Consumption of Politics? Material Symbolism, Social Subjectivity, and Consumer Agency. Complicating Social Position: Conscious Experience and Dominant Structure. Racialization and Subjectivity in Consumer Culture. 3. Material and Symbolic Racism in Consumer Space. Black Simulacra: Advertising Racial Difference. Patent Medicines and African-American Body Discipline. I Left There an Innocent Man': Racism and White Public Space. Race and Racism as Constraining and Enabling. 4. Producers as Well as Consumers': Market Space in African-American Annapolis. What Can Be Done by the Negro': African-American Entrepreneurship. African-American Marketing in Jim Crow Annapolis. African-American Consumers and Jewish Merchants. Chain and Corner Stores. African-American Consumer Discipline. 5. Moralizing Work and Materialism: The Morals of African-American Labor and Consumption. The Work Ethic and African-American Subjectivity. Wage Slavery: Labor and Material Opportunity in Annapolis. Constructing Genteel Consumers. Moralizing Discourses and Social Struggle. 6. Modes of Consumption: African-American Consumption Tactics. What a Race They Are!': Racializing Domestic Labor. Domestic Labor and the Movement of Goods. Ceramics and Communal Reciprocity. Tactical Mediations. 7. Affluent Aspiration: African-American Consumer Desire. It Is Your Duty to Live Well': Democratizing Materialism. `To Live is to Consume!': Consumption as Empowerment. National Markets and African-American Consumers. Racializing Thrift. Aspiration and African-American Consumption. 8. Double Consciousness, Whiteness, and Consumer Culture. References. Index.