Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture

Ellen Ruppel Shell

A correspondent and contributing editor for the Atlantic Magazine, Professor Shell writes about science and public policy for such national publications as Smithsonian, Audubon, the New York Times, Seed, Discover and the Washington Post. She has served as an editor for many magazines and for public broadcasting, and is sought frequently as a commentator on issues of science and the press. She is author of three books, most recently Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture (Penguin, 2009), a narrative investigation of the history, politics, psychology, economics and consequences of low-price consumption in America, praised as “highly intelligent…a first-rate job of reporting and analysis” by the New York Times Sunday Book Review. A frequent contributor to the opinion page of the Boston Globe, her blog, “To Reason and Beyond,” is featured on theatlantic.com.