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23 - Corporate Imperialism and the World of Goods

from Part III - The Perils of Interdependence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2021

Brooke L. Blower
Affiliation:
Boston University
Andrew Preston
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

In the early twentieth century, corporations and very large privately held companies circled the globe in search of raw materials and new markets for the flood of consumer goods that rapid industrialization had produced. Standard Oil, Singer Manufacturing, Ford Motor, United Fruit, Coca-Cola, Victor Talking Machine, Edison Manufacturing, Firestone Tire and Rubber, and the British American Tobacco companies, along with countless others, sought to source rubber, tobacco, bananas, cotton, and many other raw materials from outside the United States. Simultaneously, many of these same companies sold a proliferating array of commodities across the globe. As part and parcel of this industrial development, culture industries – including the film, record, print media, and advertising industries – circulated brand glyphs, advertisements, films, sound recordings, and print narratives in a variety of formats across diverse international markets. By both accident and design, these cultural products interacted with other commodities and sold unstable interpretations of this very process of globalization to consumers.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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