| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.2

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 163 words from this article are provided below; about 382 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

American Commodities in an Age of Empire. By Mona Domosh. (New York: Routledge, 2006. xii, 202 pp. Cloth, $90.00, ISBN 978-0-415-94571-4. Paper, $22.95, ISBN 978-0-415-94572-1.)

This book examines how five international companies—H. J. Heinz, Singer, McCormick Harvesting Machine, Eastman Kodak, and New York Life Insurance—helped construct and legitimize an American empire built mostly through commercial expansion rather than territorial conquest. By 1910, those firms had established overseas factories, retail shops, and branch offices in most of Europe and in parts of Australia, New Zealand, Central and South America, and South and East Asia. Mona Domosh, a cultural geographer, analyzes the commercial geography lessons that Americans learned from turn-of-the-century trade cards, print advertisements, and catalogs. Such advertisements, Domosh argues, not only helped legitimize commercial expansion overseas by presenting it as part of the Anglo civilizing mission, but they also helped redefine technology and economic development, rather than race and culture, as the key determinants of a peoples' level of civilization.

. . .

There are about 382 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.