Shoptimism is an entertaining guided tour through the parallel worlds of selling and buying.

Part I, “Them Versus You,” explores “the Sell Side,” where well-armed marketing, retailing, advertising, and consumer-research forces take aim on the American buyer.

Part II, “You Versus You,” burrows into the buyer’s heart and mind to answer, among other questions:

* What are we really looking for when we buy?

* Why are we alternately excited, satisfied, disappointed, and recklessly impulsive?

* Why are some of us loose with our money while others pinch pennies?

* Are men and women really all that different when they shop and buy?

* Why does practicality and value matter most to some people, novelty and excess to others?

Shoptimism is neither an anti-consumer manifesto nor the confessions of a macho shopaholic. It’s a journey, at times wide-eyed, at times skeptical, through the present and future of consumerism – the emerging importance of social networking, what neuroscience can and can’t tell us about buying behavior, our state of mind as we struggle through challenging economic times. It also weaves into the journey a lively social and cultural history of how the modern Sell Side and new American consumer came to be in the early 1900s, how the Fifties changed buying habits and ushered in ever more sophisticated (and sometimes invasive) market research methods, not to mention the leveraging of sex as a sales tool.

The book builds to a discussion of how critics of consumption are too often quick to levy a guilty verdict on the American buyer, ignoring how consumption can be a pathway to self-expression, creativity, and even provide a lasting personal legacy. While not a how-to-shop book, Shoptimism wittily delivers a trove of research and insights that may well alter how readers assess their own buying behavior — while at the same giving buyers ammunition to defend themselves against America’s army of sellers.