Chapter 4: A Changing Society and Culture pp. 80 - 112
(to A New Mass Consumption Culture)
We have already become acquainted with a number of the changes which this chapter considers, but here the emphasis will be on the psychological effects of these changes, and perhaps on the sociology of change, as well. We will also begin to note that this new society is losing its Victorian flavor and moral attitudes are changing. We'll consider how these changes arise out of the economic and geographic changes we're noticing. We will touch on racism, but we'll return to look at blacks in the 1980s in much greater detail later.
For Wednesday, March 6 Two World's Fairs
Read, in Schlereth,
Prologue, Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1876, pp. 1-6
Interlogue, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 pp. 169-175.
Mr. Zwick has put together two marvelous lists of sources on these expositions. I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out how to assign these so that we get maximum coverage of them for class discussion, without either being too dictatorial or to mechanical. I think the best thing to do would be to let nature take its course here. What I'd like to have you each do is choose 5 things from each, (a total of ten), and download them and bring them to class. You will note that the Columbian Exposition list is much larger than the other is. Each of the listings on the first page is a link to a page of primary sources. This tells us something in and of itself. Technological changes in those 17 years allowed a much wider distribution of information about the fair, more reportage, more photographs, and more ephemera generally.
If you think about what your alter-ego might have enjoyed visiting at the fair (or, perhaps what your parents might have been interested in had you not been around in 1876), and let that determine your choices we should get a good variety. We'll get a round table discussion going about these expositions, and we'll try to understand what they meant, and how each captured the imagination of the generation during which each occurred.
I WILL COLLECT YOUR JOURNALS THIS CLASS PERIOD.
They should be current through Monday, March 4th
.
Please make sure that your name is on each page you turn in, and it would be helpful to number those pages, just in case I drop them on the floor or something.
I will treat these as works in progress, and I'll be looking at how thoroughly you've investigated the readings as assigned, and how thoughtful you've been in determining how your alter-ego would react to the ideas, events, and persons these assignments have introduced.
Please include a biography of your character as you have developed him/her to this point. (I would gather you know more about the person's psychology, outlook, motivation, etc. than you did when you started to think about her or him.
For Friday, Friday, March 8Mr. Sears, Revisited
Read, in Chambers,
Chapter 4: A Changing Society and Culture, pp. 112 - 124
(A New Mass Consumption Culture)
This is the last class before Spring Break. I've scheduled another of the PBS documentaries for this class, Mr. Sears' Catalog
They started selling watches. Then Richard Sears and Alva Curtis Roebuck started a revolution -- a "wish book" that made life on the farm a little easier and put consumer goods within reach of every American. A story of entrepreneurial triumph as well as an affectionate portrait of America from the 1890s through the 1920s.
The primary focus of the video is the period from 1893 to 19o06 and it should cement our understanding of the new consumer culture very well. I am traveling on this day, and given the way airport security works in this era I shall have to leave before this class time. I'm going to ask for a volunteer to take charge of the video, or if you would rather, I'll get a colleague to drop by and view it with you.
