Shopping our way to safety : how we changed from protecting the environment to protecting ourselves / Andrew Szasz.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 283-317) and index.

Introduction: inverted quarantine -- Two historical case studies -- The fallout shelter panic of 1961 -- Suburbanization as inverted quarantine -- Assembling a personal commodity bubble for one's body -- Drinking -- Eating -- Breathing -- Consequences of inverted quarantine -- Imaginary refuge -- Political anesthesia -- Conclusion: the future of an illusion -- Notes -- References -- Index.

Szasz argues that when consumers believe that they are buying a defense--organic, natural, or green products--from environmental hazards, they feel less urgency to actually do something to fix the problem. To achieve real security, he believes consumers must give up the illusion of individual solutions and together seek substantive reform. www.alibris.com