The Culture of Capitalism

The course asks how literature, theater, and film have captured the spirit of capitalism—fueling its fantasies, contemplating its effects, and chronicling its crises. More than just an economic system, capitalism created new habits of life and mind; it also created new values, forged and distilled by new forms of art. Core readings by Franklin, O'Neill, Rand, Miller, and Mamet, films by Chaplin and Lang, and background readings by Smith, Marx, Taylor, Weber, and Schumpeter.