American Consumer Culture

Black and white photo of a card dealership.

Automobiles in window of the Washington-Cadillac Co., Washington, D.C. (Image courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, [reproduction number LC-USZ62-111329 DLC].)

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

21H.206

As Taught In

Fall 2007

Level

Undergraduate

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Course Description

Course Features

Course Highlights

This course features archived syllabi from various semesters.

Course Description

This class examines how and why twentieth-century Americans came to define the "good life" through consumption, leisure, and material abundance. We will explore how such things as department stores, nationally advertised brand-name goods, mass-produced cars, and suburbs transformed the American economy, society, and politics. The course is organized both thematically and chronologically. Each period deals with a new development in the history of consumer culture. Throughout we explore both celebrations and critiques of mass consumption and abundance.

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Related Content

Meg Jacobs. 21H.206 American Consumer Culture. Fall 2007. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.


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