Natalia Milanesio

This dissertation examines the changes that mass consumption brought to popular material culture and workers’ everyday life in Argentina, and argues that the most original aspect of Juan D. Perón’s government (1946-55) was the participation of the working class in a mass modern consumer culture. Buying, using, and displaying consumer goods redefined the roles of the housewife and the breadwinner, and modern appliances and food items changed the popular household in aesthetic and functional terms, contributing to the emergence of a distinct working-class taste. Furthermore, this project analyzes the symbolic and cultural values people attached to consumer goods and what effects they had on class and gender relations and identities.