Service and Style

In the early part of the twentieth century, department stores peddled everything from dresses to kitchen appliances. From the 1920s to the 1960s, they took on a new role as the ultimate arbiters of taste, showing a growing middle class the goods they needed to move up the social ladder. In Service and Style, Jan Whitaker gives readers a historical tour through these wonders of the retail world looking at their early forms, how they grew and what theyve become today. She looks at specific stores like Jordan Marsh, John Wanamakers, Macys, A&S and Gimbels. She looks at the post WWII boom and the developing catalogue business attached to certain retailers like Sears and Roebuck. Filled with a great deal of nostalgia for days gone by, Service and Style is also an important cultural history. Besides making many of us think back to the first time we saw the Marshall Fields Christmas tree or John Wanamakers Dancing Waters display, Whitaker reminds us what a vital part the department store has played in the history of American business and the life of the American family.