This edited volume introduces the concept of the ‘marketing turn’ to the history of marketing and consumption in the late twentieth century, a period which has, until now, not been the subject of comprehensive historical analysis. The marketing turn reflects both marketers’ growing emphasis on the consumer rather than the product and the broader historical ‘market turn’ from the 1970s until the early 2000s.

The volume includes an opening chapter that introduces the marketing turn as an overarching analytical framework and offers an in-depth literature survey organised around three themes: ‘globalised fragmentation’, ‘cultural transformation’ and ‘business of the market turn’. Nine empirical chapters discuss case studies from a broad range of geographical settings, focusing on different aspects of marketing knowledge and methods, consumer conceptualisations, and institutional developments from socio-cultural, business and technological perspectives. A concluding outlook provides further insights based on the volume and provides questions for future research.

The volume will be indispensable reading for scholars and students of twentieth-century history of marketing, consumption, media and business. Scholars from adjacent, non-historical disciplines in the social sciences and humanities—such as media and communication studies, marketing and consumer culture studies—will find the volume highly relevant.

Elin Åström Rudberg is Associate Professor in Economic History and a Researcher at the Department for Economic History and International Relations at Stockholm University, Sweden.

Klara Arnberg is Senior Lecturer in Economic History at the Department of Economic History and International Relations at Stockholm University, Sweden.