Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: New Books in Popular Culture
Episode: Caroline Jack, "Business as Usual: How Sponsored Media Sold American Capitalism in the Twentieth Century" (U Chicago Press, 2024)
Description: Business as Usual:Ā How Sponsored Media Sold American Capitalism in the Twentieth Century, (U Chicago Press, 2024)Ā ļ»æreveals how American capitalism has been promoted in the most ephemeral of materials: public service announcements, pamphlets, educational films, and gamesāwhat Caroline Jack calls āsponsored economic education media.ā These items, which were funded by corporations and trade groups who aimed to āsell America to Americans,āfound their way into communities, classrooms, and workplaces, and onto the airwaves, where they promoted ideals of āfree enterpriseā under the cloaks of public service and civic education. They offered an idealized vision of US industrial development as a s...