Stephen Mihm, Columnist

Do Consumer Boycotts Work in the U.S.? Just Ask the British

It ended with American independence. But it started with ordinary people refusing to buy the King's cider, pickles and jewelry in the 1760s.

February 10, 2017 at 3:00 PM UTC

By Stephen Mihm

Stephen Mihm, a professor of history at the University of Georgia, is coauthor of “Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance.”

A Revolutionary resistance strategy.
Photographer: JT Vintage / Glasshouse Images/UIG via Getty Images

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Boycott Trump? The movement to stick it to the billionaire-turned-president has been gaining momentum, with groups like Grab Your Wallet targeting the business ventures of Trump and his inner circle. Both Nordstrom and Nieman Marcus recently dropped Ivanka Trump’s product lines, though both companies denied the boycotts had anything to do with their decision.

Trump’s opponents are even targeting companies deemed too cozy to the administration, forcing Uber’s CEO to resign from the president’s advisory council as a boycott campaign called #deleteuber rocked the company. Not to outdone, pro-Trump partisans have vowed to boycott companies which ran pro-immigration ads during the Super Bowl, with Lumber 84 and Budweiser among the targets of their ire.