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.
Readings table
| 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 |
|
