After presenting my motivation for writing this book, this chapter gives an overview of its main contents and messages. The book studies how economists debated consumer society. It gives an analysis of consumption and well-being in the history of economic thought since the late eighteenth century. After this introduction, the book’s second chapter presents the terms of the debate and the conceptual framework that will be used. The following four chapters are devoted to the four time periods that have been considered in the study: 1770–1870, 1870–1945, 1945–1990, and 1990 to the present. In each of them, the reader will find a historical reconstruction of major changes taking place in both the real world and in economics, followed by a detailed analysis of economists’ views on consumer society. A final chapter presents the conclusions and stresses that the debate on consumer society was also a debate on how economists should conduct their research.