Consumer nationalism combines two of the most important historical forces in modern history: the advent of consumerism and nationalism. Consumerism refers to consumption of branded, mass-produced goods and services and the orientation of social life around them. That is, consumerism involves the creation or reproduction of social identity through the consumption of mass-produced, branded, and advertised things. Consumer nationalism refer to efforts to define buying and using (or consumption) as a political statement through the nonconsumption of things from an offending country or countries and the consumption of one's own nationally produced goods and services.

Consumer nationalism often has two sides: nonconsumption of imports and consumption of domestic goods and services. Of the two, boycotts are the most visible and common form of consumer nationalism. Boycotts ...