The Value Of A Dollar

Offers a year-by-year listing of the cost of certain items from different categories, gives average salaries for several occupations, and offers summaries of major events that influenced the economy.

Want to know what a guy had to pay for a ticket to the Tunney-versus-Dempsey heavyweight title fight in 1926? What a family had to pay for a Toastmaster Automatic pop-up toaster that same year? Perhaps you're wondering what a Sears Roly Poly combed-cotton baby gown cost in 1941, what a pound of sugar cost in 1960, how much the Szechuan seafood salad sold for at the Shun Lee Restaurant, New York City, in 1988. This engaging statistical summary presents the history of the American people through the prices they paid for a wide variety of products and services. The first section is organized into six chapters covering 20-year periods and then into subchapters covering 5-year spans. Each subchapter presents a chronology of mostly economic events; tables showing typical wages and incomes, expenditures, and investment yields; a representative "food basket" comparing prices in different cities; prices on items from alcoholic beverages to travel; and more. Following these summaries is a new section called "Pricing Trends," which tracks changes in the costs of goods and services in various categories and also show values compared to today's dollar.

The precise source of the data is often included in the tables and charts. The tables are stylishly designed, with lots of white space between numbers and an occasional historical snapshot or advertising reproduction. The index is not especially detailed, and there are some errors in the running heads.

The Value of a Dollar will interest students of social history, fiction writers needing easy access to precise historical detail, business historians, and older folks nostalgic for those days gone by when you could buy your smokes for a penny apiece. This is a recommended title for academic libraries, larger public libraries, and any library serving people interested in understanding history through the eyes of everyday consumers. Art A. Lichtenstein
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