Retail managers and shop-till-you-droppers alike will revel in Longstreth's ode to the American department store. Focusing on the development of department stores from 1920 to 1960, his book is equal parts scholarly treatise and coffee-table folio. Chronicling what he calls the "transformation" of the department store, Longstreth (American studies, George Washington Univ.) describes how stores modernized their facilities and expanded their wares and services to become must-shop destinations. Shaped by industry titans such as Marshall Field, John Wanamaker, J. C. Penney, Adam Gimbel, and David May, the stores staked out their claims on the retail landscape. Locations and amenities were chosen with patrons' needs in mind, from vaults to store customers' furs and elegant tearooms to wondrous toy departments and rooftop solariums. Or, as was the case at Penney's and Sears, the stores had wide selections at low prices. Longstreth describes how, surviving the economic upheavals of the Great Depression and WW II, department stores clothed, fed, and entertained American families, furnished their homes, and defined their lives and communities. The book contains numerous black-and-white photographs and an extensive bibliography. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division and graduate marketing students, faculty, and practitioners, as well as general readers. P. G. Kishel Cypress College