HIS 427 - European Consumer Culture: 1750 to the Present

This seminar explores the history of consumer culture in Europe from the 18th century through the 1990s. From the luxury consumption of the Old Regime aristocracy to the electric-lit department stores of the 19th-century metropolis, an examination of European consumer culture allows us to trace momentous economic, social, and political transformations of the modern era through tourism, revolutionary fashion, imperialism, and socialist critiques. In the 20th century, we assess the interrelated markets and pop cultures of Europe and the U.S. with postwar “Americanization”- from rock & roll to McDonald’s.