Born to Buy investigates the emergence and evolution of the U.S. as the canonical consumer society. Through readings and exercises, we will explore how trade, shopping, and politics converged in America to make the consumption-driven culture that it has today. The class will track the arrival and development of newly invented or modified commodities, like fabrics and foods, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and of new retail spaces, like the department store and the shopping mall in the 19th and 20th centuries and the online community in the 21st century. It will examine how entrepreneurs exploited differences in class, sex and race (and understandings of them) to expand both market and desire. Finally, it will chart changes in how Americans have understood and approached their consumption of goods – adhering to traditional paradigms touting necessity and luxury or embracing newer ideologies valorizing fashion and taste.

Course Requirements:

Attendance; Reading; Discussion of the Readings; Occasional Short Response Papers; Presentations; Final Paper

Intended Audience:

This course is designed for freshmen; no knowledge or expertise is required.

Class Format:

Seminar