A matter of taste
Subtitle: how names, fashions, and culture change
By: Stanley Lieberson.
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 334
Subjects: Names, Personal -- United States.; Fashion.; Fads.; Social change.
Description: "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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [303]-316) and index.