Banner Viadrina

David Crew

Consumers, Consumerism and the Development of Mass Culture in

Twentieth Century Europe and North America

3/6/8/9 ECTS
Seminar: BA/MA, BA Kulturwissenschaften Vertiefung // MEK Zentralmodul Europäische Kulturgeschichte // KGMOE: Kernmodul Politische Ordnung-Wirtschaft-Gesellschaft // MASS Wahlmodul „Wirtschaft und Kultur“ // MES
Blockseminar, Ort: GD 309, Veranstaltungsbeginn: 24.06.2011 Attention! New rooms for all three days!

One of the most important developments in the past two hundred years of European and North American history has been the slow rise of mass consumer societies. Commodities and cultural practices which were still luxuries available only to the upper middle classes as late as the 1920s—automobiles or foreign travel, for example--have now become part of the everyday lives of millions of people in Europe and North America. The ability to ensure that their citizens enjoy prosperity and a high standard of living has become a key concern of political parties, governments and entire political regimes. This course examines the emergence of modern consumer societies in Europe and North America, and the relationship of distinctive  historical “regimes of consumption” to democracy, fascism, and communism in the twentieth century.
Literatur: Victoria de Grazia,editor, The Sex of Things. Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective (Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 1996)[please get a copy of this book]
Victoria de Grazia, Irrepressible Empire. America’s Advance through 20th-Century Europe (Cambridge,Mass. and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005)[ readings from this book and other readings will be available on-line]
Teilnahmevoraussetzungen: Please register for this course by April 10th hotzan@europa-uni.de
Hinweise zum Blockseminar: Friday, June 24th (9:00 – 18:30) GD 309; Saturday, June 25th (9:00 – 18:30) GD 102; Sunday, June 26th (10:00 – 17:45) AM 104
Leistungsnachweis: Referat und Hausarbeit
Sprache: Englisch

Bitte nicht mehr anmelden, da der Kurs bereits voll belegt ist (Stand 30.03.11)