Title: A matter of taste :
Authors: Lieberson, Stanley,
Date: 2000
Publisher: Yale University Press,
Physical description: xvi, 334 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Language: English
LC classification: C
Abstract: "In this innovative book Stanley Lieberson analyzes children's first names to develop an original theory of fashion. Children's names provide an opportunity to view the pure mechanisms of fashion, unaffected by commercial interests that influence many fashions and tastes, says Lieberson. He disputes the commonly held notion that tastes in names (and other fashions) simply reflect societal shifts. There exist also "internal taste mechanisms" that drive changes in fashion even in the absence of social change, Lieberson contends. He explores the intricate and subtle ways in which internal mechanisms operate in concert with social forces to determine our choices of names. And he applies these conclusions to classical music, the decline of the fedora, women's garments, and other examples of change in fashion."--BOOK JACKET.
Contents: Tastes : why do they become what they become? -- Becoming a fashion -- How the social order influences names after they become a matter of taste--and how it doesn't -- The ratchet effect -- Other internal mechanisms -- Models of the fashion process -- Ethnic and racial groups -- Entertainment and entertainers -- Broader issues : the cultural surface and cultural change.
Subject headings (LCSH): Fads; Fashion; Fashion--Social aspects.; Names, Personal--Statistics.; Names, Personal--United States; Names, Personal.; Social change.