124267 AR Cultural/Media Studies 1/2 (AR) & Literature Course - American/North American (2017W)

In the years since World War II, mass consumption in the United States has become a driving force of global capitalism; it is as much cultural phenomenon as Keynesian economic policy. This course will consider the historical development of the American consumer culture from its colonial origins to the present day, but with a particular focus on the twentieth century. We will examine the popular culture of consumption—as represented in films like Funny Face (1957)—and also the business consultants and “engineers” who worked to create that culture through market research, product and package design, media publicity, and advertising. The international dimension of consumer culture will emerge through émigré figures like Victor Gruen, the Viennese architect who fled the Nazis in 1938 and went on to invent the suburban shopping center from his new home in Los Angeles. We will also consider critics of consumer culture, from Thorstein Veblen to the critical theorists of the “Frankfurt School,” Max Horkheimer’s Institut für Sozialforschung, which was exiled in New York in the 1930s and 1940s.

Specific topics will include: the consumer spectacle of the department store which arose along with the professionalization of the advertising industry in the late-nineteenth century; consumerism as a political movement used by New Dealers and civil rights activists in the mid-twentieth century; the emergence of “big-box” discount retailing in the late-twentieth-century; and the disruptive force of Internet commerce in the twenty-first century. Beyond its economic function, we will use consumption as a sociocultural lens through which to consider important issues in American history, such as class conflicts, gender roles, race relations, and ethnic identities. By the end the course, students will be able to skillfully interpret primary sources and knowledgeably write about the history of consumption as a nexus of American culture, society, and economy.

This will be a seminar-style class that will mix short lectures and discussion.