Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - It all started in 1999 while researching advertisements via periodicals, newspapers and microfilm for a graduate seminar at Purdue University in Indiana. Adam Stanley, University of Wisconsin-Platteville assistant professor of history, began to generate ideas for his dissertation and over the subsequent years, it culminated in his recently published book "Modernizing Tradition: Gender and Consumerism in Interwar France and Germany." Louisiana State University Press published the book.

While looking through post-World War I and pre-World War II European advertisements and department store catalogs, Stanley expected to find materialism, but instead found a lot of unexplored social meaning. He quickly noticed the differences in how advertisements were targeted to consumers according to their gender. In fact, even after women had played a major role in the European workforce while men were away fighting in World War I, they were encouraged, through the advertisements, to return to the home, using the lure of advanced household and day-to-day technology.

For example, automobile advertisements might show a man driving to work, but show a woman going on picnics, taking her children to school or having all sorts of mishaps while driving.

Although the book explores both male and female consumerist behavior, it does focus more on women's experience. Stanley found that people were pleased that men were showing an interest in women's issues and that they were supportive and encouraging.

Before departing for Europe in May 2003 to begin his abroad research, Stanley identified Paris, France, and Berlin, Germany, as primary locations to study.

Stanley reads French and German, which was pivotal to the project since all of the materials he used for his research were printed in the native languages of each country.

He chose Paris because it represents France broadly and encompasses what it means to be French. Plus, there was easy access to research materials. Research in Berlin proved more difficult, because Germany had historically been more regionalized than France and so fewer national publications were available.

Stanley had planned to contrast the gender ideologies in France and Germany, but was surprised when he found them to be strikingly similar. "Nazis had changed everything when they came to power, but curiously gender ideology was left the same," he said.

He was also surprised at how much advance work it took to prepare for the trip. He spoke with other graduate students who had experience researching abroad, acquired any necessary letters from his professors to submit to the libraries in Paris and Berlin in order to get permission to use their materials, plus, he had to find a place to stay.

Traveling on a budget and leaving his wife and young daughter at home were difficult over the three-month-long research period, but Stanley smiles when he tells how he left his sublet Berlin apartment for the first time, turned a corner, passed an outdoor market and found a Dunkin' Donuts and a Woolworth's. "It was great to find some comforts of home," he said.

He is uncertain as of yet if the book will be used for a class at UWP. He laughs as he recalls thinking in the past that he would never assign his students to read a book that he wrote.

Stanley is currently putting ideas into a file for his next project and he will likely work on another 20th Century European culture topic next, which will also focus on France and Germany.

Stanley's current book will be available in the UWP Karrmann Library soon and copies can also be obtained through Louisiana State University Press and most major booksellers.

For more information, contact Stanley at (608) 342-6012 or stanleya@uwplatt.edu.