CONSUMER CULTURE IN AMERICAN HISTORY: COLONIAL TIMES TO THE PRESENT

History 389, Section B01
Summer 2003
Mondays and Wednesdays, 7:20-10:00 PM, Robinson B218

Elena Razlogova
Department of History and Art History, Pohick Module 8
Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 5-7 PM and by appointment
Office Phone: 703-993-4522
Email: erazlogo@gmu.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This class will investigate the development of consumer society in the United States and the relationship to national politics and culture. It looks at the ideas and institutions that have formed the foundations of consumer society; the ways these have changed over time; and the ways ordinary men and women have embraced, shaped, or resisted consumerism. We will begin by locating the origins of contemporary consumer culture in the American colonies, and analyze its relationship to the American Revolution. We will then examine the development of contemporary consumer culture, focusing on the rise of advertising and marketing, consumer boycotts, the relationship between consumers and the national state, and commercialization of public space. By the end of the course students should be able to understand varied past and contemporary critiques and uses of consumer society. Active class participation is required.

READINGS

Lawrence B. Glickman, ed., Consumer Society in American History: A Reader (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999) (Reader)

Online articles available through Jstor at http://www.jstor.org/jstor/. Students are required to bring a printed copy of each article to class to refer to it during the discussion.

Additional video, audio, and print materials will be available online, on reserve, or in class.

REQUIREMENTS

As key ideas will be discussed in class, you must attend class regularly to do well; attendance will be crucial to your understanding of the material. Active class participation will count for 20% of your final grade.

Five weekly one-page reaction papers, due in class every Monday, 25% of your final grade (5% each). Papers should discuss readings due on Monday.

One three-page book review (typed, double-spaced) will count for 30% of your final grade. For this paper students will be required to read a book on an aspect of consumer culture of their choice and relate it to relevant materials discussed in class. Students may select the book from the bibliographic essay in the Reader (pp. 399-414). The selection must be approved by instructor.

A take-home final exam will count for 25% of your final grade.

All papers should be typed, double-spaced, stapled, and in some basic font such as Times or Palatino.

Visits to specific, assigned web sites; ability to access the internet is necessary. You will need to use a computer with either Real Player or Quicktime (campus computers have both; free versions are also available online so you can download them to your home computer).

Absolutely no late papers. Extensions must be request at least a week in advance of the due date.

No incompletes without permission.

Plagiarism of any kind--from published sources or from your peers--is a serious crime and will be punished accordingly.

SYLLABUS

Week I: Introduction: Definitions of Consumer Culture

6/2 Introduction

6/4 Lawrence Glickman, "Introduction: Born to Shop? Consumer History and American History" (Reader pp. 1-14)
Raymond Williams, "Consumer" (Reader, pp. 17-18)
Alan Durning, "An Environmentalists's Perspective on Consumer Society" (Reader pp. 78-81)
In Class: Film: Frontline: The Merchants of Cool (PBS, 2001)

Week II: Roots of American Consumer Society

6/9 James Axtell, "The First Consumer Revolution" (Reader pp. 85-99)

6/11 T. H. Breen, "Narrative of Commercial Life: Consumption, Ideology, and Community on the Even of the American Revolution" (Reader pp. 100-129)

Week III: The Origins of Consumer Capitalism, 1890-1930

6/16 William Leach, "Transformations in a Culture of Consumption: Women and Department Stores, 1890-1925," Journal of American History 71 (September 1984): 319-342. (Jstor)

6/18 Lizabeth Cohen, "Encountering Mass Culture at the Grassroots: The Experience of Chicago Workers in the 1920s" (Reader pp. 147-169)

Week IV: The Rise of the Citizen Consumer, 1930-1946

6/23 Cheryl Greenberg, "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" (Reader pp. 241-273)

6/25 Meg Jacobs, "'How About Some Meat?': The Office of Price Administration, Consumption Politics, and State Building from the Bottom Up, 1941-1946," Journal of American History 84 (December 1997): 910-941. (Jstor)

Week V: Consumerism, Public Space, and Civil Rights, 1946-1970

6/30 Lizabeth Cohen, "From Town Center to Shopping Center: The Reconfiguration of Community Marketplaces in Postwar America," American Historical Review 101 (October 1996): 1050-1081. (Jstor)

7/2 Robert E. Weems, Jr., "The Revolution Will Be Marketed: American Corporations and Black Consumers During the 1960s" (Reader pp. 316-325)

Week VI: Contemporary Consumer Society and Commercial Media

7/7 Book Review Papers Due (No weekly response papers due this week)
In Class: Film: Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent (1992)

7/9 Juliet B. Schor, "All Work and No Play. It Doesn't Pay" (Reader pp. 326-327)
Kim Moody, "When High Wage Jobs Are Gone, Who Will Buy What We Make?" (Reader pp. 328-332)
John Elkington, Julia Hailes, and Joel Makower, "The Green Consumer" (Reader pp. 333-337)
Interview with Thomas Frank, "Voice in the Neon Wilderness," http://www.mediachannel.org/views/interviews/frank.shtml

Week VII: Critiques and Celebrations

7/14 Michael Schudson, "Delectable Materialism: Second Thoughts on Consumer Culture" (Reader pp. 341-358)

7/16 Jean-Christophe Agnew, "Coming Up for Air: Consumer Culture in Historical Perspective" (Reader pp. 373-397)

Week VIII: Review

7/21 No Class--study for exam.

Take-home Final Exam Due July 28 at 8 AM in Robinson B359 in Instructor's mailbox