Nation Of Salesmen - Softcover

Earl, Shorris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393334082 ISBN 13: 9780393334081

Publisher: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1980

Synopsis

If Adam is the archetype of man, and Eve of woman, then the serpent who sold the apple to Eve in the Garden of Eden was the first salesman: all culture and commerce flow from that act.

In this groundbreaking book on the nature and meaning of the sale, Earl Shorris takes us on a journey that starts in Eden and comes at last to a consideration of where we are and what we have become in late twentieth-century America, where selling has finally become the dominant human activity. Shorris focuses on the perfection of this particular art here in America, where the vast frontier with its isolated settlements cast the salesman in a heroic role: he was literally the bearer of culture, the source of a panoply of needed and wanted items, everything from parasols to plowshares. He was Prometheus. All of this changed dramatically in the years following World War II, when it dawned on manufacturers and sellers that the American economy was producing more goods than people wanted or needed. Demand would have to be created in order to sustain the expansion of markets, and then, as the economy became oversold, the role of the salesman changed: his task was now to kill the competition. The argument of this brilliant work draws on classical philosophy, contemporary politics, psychology, and economics; it is grounded in the author's long experience as an advertising executive and consultant to major corporations. His firsthand observations and interviews with salesmen of every description form the anecdotal bedrock of the narrative, which is further enlivened by a series of fictions in which salesmen practice aspects of their trade. Out of these stories and insights emerges a chilling new paradigm of humanlife in our times: that of homo vendens. Shorris shows us how America became a nation of salesmen, and what this means to our economy, our politics, our culture, and our character - especially our freedom to live as dignified persons.

About this title

About the Author

Earl Shorris (1936–2012) was the author of many works of both fiction and non-fiction including Latinos, Under the Fifth Sun, In the Language of Kings, and Riches for the Poor. He was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Clinton for his founding of the Clemente Course in the Humanities®, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A turgid, self-indulgent treatment of a rich topic: how ``selling has achieved dominion over the world in our time.'' Shorris (Latinos, 1992) long combined life as a writer with a top position at the N.W. Ayer advertising agency. ``I needed the job,'' he confesses. Unfortunately, his mea/nostra culpa is only infrequently a memoir; rather, he prefaces each chapter with parablelike fictions featuring unnamed salesfolk--though some ``have a worldly double''--not necessarily linked to the following text. Further contributing to the book's meandering nature is its scope: Shorris aims to begin at the Beginning. So he locates the archetypal salesman in the serpent of the Garden of Eden and its counterparts in other religious epics. He takes us through Plato and Charlemagne, Max Weber and Adam Smith, television and credit. However, he is given to sweeping statements: Salesmen, as mediators, ``cannot find a place for their economic loyalties''; and ``Bill Clinton does not sell in order to govern; he governs in order to sell.'' There are nuggets of interest: Shorris dissects the advertising titans' specious argument that their work aids national productivity; former General Motors chairman Roger Smith- -in one of a few interviews sprinkled through the book (two of them with the author's sons)--recounts his successful courting of Toyota. Shorris's grand conclusion, however, is that the archetypal Western person is homo vendens, the salesman, building a society without dignity, thus susceptible to tyranny. And so: ``The choice in our time is not to die but to think,'' to value knowledge above things. Okay. But others have better tackled this territory, either through close journalistic portraits (David Dorsey's The Force, p. 358) or more focused essays (Barry Schwartz's The Costs of Freedom, p. 538). In one of the many quotes prefacing chapters, Shorris even reproduces part of his proposal for this book. In this case, it seems, he's a better salesman than author. (First serial to Harper's) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc.
• Publication date: 1980
• ISBN 10: 0393334082
• ISBN 13: 9780393334081
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 356