Title: Neither History nor Cultural History
Product review: The Sivulkas' work is a rather long narrative of American advertising -- with very little to offer beyond reproductions of some rather commonplace ads from the last two hundred years. Much of the information they offer seems to come from other sources, and there is no real bibliography to the book. It is most misleadingly titled "cultural history" since there is so very little to the book beyond a chronology, and that is full of mistakes, over-simplifications, and such bland statements that there is nothing to be learned from this book. Others have written much better and more meaningful things about the history of advertising, and charged less than [$$] for it.
Would you say this review depicts the product in a flattering or unflattering light?
