A Token of My Affection

Know about the book -

A Token of My Affection is written by Barry Shank and published by Columbia University Press. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 0231118783 (ISBN 10) and 9780231118781 (ISBN 13).

For more than 150 years, greeting cards have tapped into and organized a shared language of love, affection, and kinship, becoming an integral part of American life and culture. Sumptuously illustrated, "A Token of My Affection" follows the evolution of the modern greeting card industry from a traditional printing and stationery business in the mid-nineteenth century to the multibillion-dollar industry it is today. Blending archival research in business history with a study of surviving artifacts and a literary analysis of a range of relevant texts and primary sources, Barry Shank demonstrates how greeting cards have affected and defined experiences of status, longing, desire, social connectedness, and love. Fascinating and surprising, "A Token of My Affection" shows what an industry devoted to emotional sincerity means for the lives of all Americans.