Abstract

This essay reviews some historiographical landmarks concerning the relationship between politics, consumerism and citizenship. These studies illustrate the various ways in which consumption has intertwined with politics, and how citizenship has been modelled on the pattern of consumerism, analysing how corporations and other institutions have constructed the concept of the consumer over time. Political debates, draft legislation, and social conflict have developed around wealth, as well as dearth, creating a complex scenario that requires ever more in-depth historical and interdisciplinary research.