HIST317

We are what we buy. Or is it, we buy what we are? Advertisers have seconds to convince people to consume their products or ideas, therefore they must rely on well-known tropes, i.e. the stories people tell themselves, about themselves. Understanding advertising helps the understanding of these stories, how things have changed, and how things remain the same. Students will have an opportunity to study the emergence of modern advertising and commodity culture and its evolution to the modern day through the ads themselves, the stories ads tell, and what those stories tell about American culture and society.