"A strikingly thoughtful study of a crucible period in American cultural and literary history. Bristling with intelligence, highly engaged, and critically informed, Living Up to the Ads investigates the shifting nature of selfhood as commodity capitalism and public relations converge on the subject."--Jennifer Wicke, author of Advertising Fictions: Literature, Advertisement, and Social Reading "Davis offers a new and provocative perspective on a cultural shift that, even in the 1920s, was marked as much by its subtle presence in fiction as it was by its heavy-handed presence in print media. This book will contribute a great deal to interdisciplinary studies of commodity culture."--Jennifer Scanlon, author of Inarticulate Longings: "The Ladies' Home Journal," Gender, and the Promises of Consumer Culture "A very stimulating book. Davis explores the complexity of the relations between advertising and personal identity, and between advertising and literature, with a lively, sharp, idiosyncratic style."--Rachel Bowlby, author of Shopping with Freud
