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 | |