Chronicles the use of cosmetics by women, describing the way their motivations have changed over history and how the concept of beauty has been redefined Beauty products have withstood the slings and arrows of more than 100 years of public debate, charged with being guilty of everything from immorality to self-indulgence to anti-feminism. A welcome new angle on the subject of our culture's obsession with personal appearance, Hope in a Jar reveals that the American beauty industry was founded on more than just clever advertising or patriarchal oppression. "Not only tools of deception and illusion," says historian Kathy Peiss of our culture's powders and pastes, "these little jars tell a rich history of women's ambition, pleasure, and community." The early entrepreneurs in the beauty business were often women, most of them as skilled at reinventing themselves as at making over their customers. Elizabeth Arden came from a poor Canadian family but remade her image into one of "upper-crust Protestant femininity" in order to sell her products. Madame Walker, one of the many African American women who were able to find careers in the beauty industry, rose from laundry lady to head of a small cosmetic empire. Indeed, Peiss finds, the beauty industry was one of the first to bring a substantial number of women a decent income. For American consumers, the marketing of makeup has long stirred issues of race, class, and morality. Peiss addresses in particular how makeup has long been marketed in ways that assert the superiority of "white" features and skin over that of other races, and how African-Americans and other minorities in the cosmetic industry have dealt with this issue. This is a well-researched, fascinating book that is more than a picture of the business of American beauty; it is a window into over a hundred years of American women's history. --Maria Dolan YA-A fascinating look at the history of cosmetics in America. The author traces public opinion and practices regarding the use of makeup from colonial days when only fallen women "painted" to modern standards that almost require women to use some sort of commercial enhancement to succeed socially and professionally. Like Joan Jacobs Brumberg's The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls (Random, 1997), this book illuminates society's former requirement that feminine beauty be judged by inner qualities and outward purity, as opposed to current standards based primarily on physical attractiveness. Early advertisements for products with outrageous claims and deadly ingredients are presented along with recipes for cosmetics that were traditionally made in the kitchen, while later advertisements include a World War II-era lipstick promotion that claimed it was women's patriotic duty to preserve femininity through the use of makeup during wartime. The varied attempts to market cosmetics to men are also examined, as are the opportunities the beauty industry afforded entrepreneurial women who were not traditionally welcomed in the business world. A thought-provoking and informative book. Debra Shumate, Bull Run Regional Library, Manassas, VA Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. Drawing upon a rich array of archival sources, the author (history, Univ. of Massachusetts) has produced a comprehensive social history of the origin and development of the U.S. cosmetics industry. In a refreshing challenge to feminist critiques that have focused on the victimization of women fostered by the American obsession with youth, appearance, and thinness, Peiss explores the role played by women themselves in the development of this process. Beginning in the 1890s, the beauty schools, correspondence courses, and mail-order companies founded by numerous pioneers-immigrant, working-class, and black women among them-made the pursuit of beauty respectable as they ingeniously used the very traditions of female culture to market their products. While Peiss clearly highlights the political debates at the heart of this topic, she deftly demonstrates the ways in which women use and have used cosmetics to explore and proclaim their own sense of self-identity. An engrossing, highly readable book that should be welcomed by scholars and general readers alike; highly recommended.AMarie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. Historian Peiss lays out a history of cosmetics in America as neatly and attractively as the scent bottles on a lady's dressing table. She begins with nineteenth-century women's use of mostly homemade preparations for clear complexions, and the linking of face paint with wantonness. She carefully traces makeup and skin care through simple, locally made and marketed products to mass-market wares, providing sketches of Max Factor, Pond's, Elizabeth Arden, and Madam C. J. Walker along the way. Her most appealing insights concern the use of advertisements, and the book is profusely illustrated. The whole is p