Educating the Consumer-citizen: A History of the Marriage of Schools, Advertising, and Media

by Spring, Joel

• ISBN13: 9780805842746
• ISBN10: 0805842748
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbau

Summary

In Educating the Consumer-Citizen: A History of the Marriage of Schools, Advertising, and Media,Joel Spring charts the rise of consumerism as the dominant American ideology of the 21st century. He documents and analyzes how, from the early 19th century through the present, the combined endeavors of schools, advertising, and media have led to the creation of a consumerist ideology and ensured its central place in American life and global culture. Spring first defines consumerist ideologyand consumer-citizenand explores their 19th-century origins in schools, children's literature, the commercialization of American cities, advertising, newspapers, and the development of department stores. He then traces the rise of consumerist ideology in the 20th century by looking closely at: the impact of the home economics profession on the education of women as consumers and the development of an American cuisine based on packaged and processed foods; the influence of advertising images of sports heroes, cowboys, and the clean-shaven businessman in shaping male identity; the outcomes of the growth of the high school as a mass institution on the development of teenage consumer markets; the consequences of commercial radio and television joining with the schools to educate a consumer-oriented population so that, by the 1950s, consumerist images were tied to the Cold War and presented as the "American way of life" in both media and schools; the effects of the civil rights movement on integrating previously excluded groups into the consumer society; the changes the women's movement demanded in textbooks, school curricula, media, and advertising that led to a new image of women in the consumer market; and the ascent of fast food education. Spring carries the story into the 21st century by examining the evolving marriage of schools, advertising, and media and its ongoing role in educating the consumer-citizen and creating an integrated consumer market. This book will be of wide interest to scholars, professionals, and students across foundations of education, history and sociology of education, educational policy, mass communications, American history, and cultural studies. It is highly appropriate as a text for courses in these areas.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Horace Mann Meets the Wizard of Oz	1	(1)
Part One: Introduction and Overview of the Book	1	(5)
Consumer-Citizen and Ideology	4	(2)
Part Two: Prelude to a Consumer Society	6	(203)
Preparing a Consumer Public: Schools and Equality of Opportunity	8	(2)
Children Read About Wealth and Its Uses	10	(4)
19th-Century Protestantism and the Environment	14	(1)
Protestantism and Urban Leisure	15	(1)
Creating a Consumer Public: Advertising and Newspapers	16	(2)
Newspapers, Post Office, Telegraph, and Advertising	18	(4)
The Wizard of Oz and the Architecture of Desiring	22	(4)
Conclusion: Development of a Consumer Society	26	(2)
Liberation With Jell-O and Wonder Bread: Educating the New Woman	28	(34)
The Consumer Woman and Brand Names	28	(3)
Teaching Consumer Ideology: Home Economics	31	(5)
Prepared Food and Women's Education	36	(4)
Wonder Bread and Jell-O: Home Economics, the New Woman, and Social Reform	40	(4)
Making up the Modern Woman	44	(3)
Placing the Product in the Woman's Mind	47	(2)
Serving Whites: African Americans and Native Americans	49	(1)
The Irrational Consumer	50	(4)
Women's Fashions as Artificial Obsolescence	54	(2)
Equality of Opportunity and Consumption	56	(2)
Conclusion: The Puritan and the Immigrant	58	(4)
Cowboys and Jocks: Visions of Manliness	62	(33)
The Crisis in Male Identity	63	(3)
Spermatic Political Economy and Patriotism	66	(3)
The Spermatic Political Economy of High School Sports	69	(4)
Sex Education	73	(2)
High School Dances and Dating: Creating a New Consumer Market	75	(5)
Patriotism and Economic Nationalism	80	(4)
The Clean-Shaven Businessman: Advertising Images of the New Man	84	(5)
The Cowboy Image	89	(1)
Conclusion: Rudolph Valentino and the Eroticization of American Society	90	(5)
Commodification of Leisure and Cultural Control: Schools, Movies, and Radio	95	(30)
Movies: Profit Versus Moral Instruction	97	(4)
Educators and Movies: Competition or Consumer Item	101	(1)
Markets, Financing, and the Content of Movies	102	(3)
Educators, Youth, and the Movies	105	(3)
Movies and the Sexual Revolution	108	(2)
Making Movies Safe	110	(4)
The Triumph of Advertising: Commercial Radio	114	(4)
Consumerism, Crime, and Violence on Children's Radio	118	(3)
Making Commodified Leisure Safe for Americans	121	(2)
Conclusion: Controlling Commodified Leisure	123	(2)
The American Way and the Manufacturing of Consent	125	(29)
Selling the ``American Way'' in Schools and on Billboards	126	(2)
Propaganda and Free Speech in Schools	128	(2)
Protecting Advertising and Linking Free Enterprise to Democracy	130	(3)
Rugg and Consumerism	133	(2)
Educating the Consumer-Citizen	135	(1)
The War of Economic Systems	136	(3)
Civic Consumerism: The New Teenage Culture	139	(2)
The American Way: TV and Comic Book Codes	141	(5)
Textbooks and the Consumer Family	146	(1)
The Male Warrior Protects the American Way	147	(3)
Trapped in Textbook and Consumer Town: Women and the Lack of Independent Media Images	150	(1)
Conclusion: The American Way	151	(3)
Participating in the American Dream	154	(28)
The Coloring of Textbook Town	154	(5)
Beauty in the Public Mind	159	(1)
Integrating Consumer Markets: African-American Sport Stars Replace White Cowboys	160	(3)
Making Shopping Masculine	163	(1)
Liberating the Textbook Town Housewife for More Consumption	164	(2)
Movies and the Racial Integration of Capitalism	166	(2)
Adding Color to TV	168	(6)
The Underclass and Big Bird: The Growth of a Common Media and Consumer Experience	174	(7)
Conclusion: All People Can Consume	181	(1)
Sonya's Choice: Fast-Food Education	182	(27)
Educating for Consumption	183	(1)
Textbooks: Environmentalism as the New Enemy	184	(1)
Consumer Education	185	(3)
Schooling Creates a Global Teen Market	188	(5)
The Seduction of Childhood	193	(7)
Memories and Critical History	200	(1)
Fast-Food Education	201	(5)
Conclusion: Getting Coca-Cola Into the Classroom	206	(3)
Notes	209	(27)
Author Index	236	(5)
Subject Index	241