21H.206 | Fall 2007 | Undergraduate

American Consumer Culture

Readings

The readings for this course come from the following books:

Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. (1900) (Download from Project Gutenberg)

Lewis, Sinclair. Babbitt. (1922) (Download from Project Gutenberg)

Horowitz, Daniel, and Vance Packard, eds. Status Seekers. Bedford: St. Martin’s, 1995. ISBN: 9780312111809.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York, NY: Perennial, 2005. ISBN: 9780060838584.

WEEK # TOPICS READINGS
1 Introduction to the world of goods

Part I: the rise of a mass market at the turn of the century
2 Downtown shopping Dreiser. Sister Carrie. Chapters 1-3, 5-8, 10, and 12-14.
3 Leisure time Dreiser. Sister Carrie. Chapters 16, 20-21, and 23-27.
4 The business of consumption Dreiser. Sister Carrie. Chapters 28-39, 42, and 44-47.
Part II: making a middle-class society in interwar America
5 Roaring twenties Lewis. Babbitt. Chapters 1-7.
6 No class: meet to discuss papers

7 Advertising the American dream Lewis. Babbitt. Chapters 8-18.
8 Abundance and its critics (I) Lewis. Babbitt. Chapters 19-34.
Part III: mass culture in postwar America
9 Status seeking in the suburbs Packard. Status Seekers. Chapters 1-7, 9-12, and 20-21.
10 Age of television Packard. Status Seekers. Chapters 13-14, 17-19, 22, and 24.
Part IV: conspicuous consumption at century’s end
11 McDonalds, microwaves, and the mega-rich Schlosser. Fast Food Nation. Part I.
12 Abundance and its critics (II) Schlosser. Fast Food Nation. Part II.
13 E-bay and beyond

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Fall 2007