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Reviewed by Laila Haidarali | Book Review | The Indiana Magazine of History, 105.1 | The History Cooperative
105.1  
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March, 2009
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Style and Status
Selling Beauty to African American Women, 1920–1975

By Susannah Walker
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007. Pp. xiii, 250. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $40.00.)

Susannah Walker's Style and Status makes a significant contribution to the history of African American con-sumerism with particular focus on women's beauty culture. The book, Walker's first, explores the politics, practices, and processes of beauty culture to analyze how "the interplay of race, class and gender ... shaped power relationships in the United States" (p. 5). Focused on the years between 1920 and 1975, Walker draws on a rich array of sources including the company records of Claude A. Barnett and Madam C.J. Walker (the latter of which are housed at the Indiana Historical Society). Walker also analyzes oral histories, print advertisements, and text and visuals in black newspapers and magazines. In exploring multiple aspects of African American beauty culture, Walker not only draws on pioneering scholarship in the field, but also builds upon Maxine Craig's recent examination of beauty pageants (Ain't I a Beauty Queen?, 2002) and upon my work on the black modeling industry. Mining these primary and secondary sources allows Walker to trace entrepreneurship, consumption, and identity formation to understand the shifting place of beauty in defining urban African Americans' gendered identities. . . .
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