One way to understand the social history of the United States is to think about the ways Americans told their stories, represented and imagined the past, and expressed their identities in the popular culture they created and consumed. In this course we will focus on some of the main forms American popular culture from the1890's to 1940 including historical romances, dime novels, magazines, early cinema, tin pan alley comic books and amusement parks. We will end the course looking at classic Hollywood movies. Throughout the course, we will be analyzing the way that social and political changes resulting from the rise of consumerism and modern industrial practices were reflected, expressed, and contested in the kinds of entertainments that shaped the everyday world of Americans.

This course may be used to satisfy the Historical Studies or Social and Behavioral Sciences breadth requirement in Letters and Science.