Hot College Courses: Mad Men, South Park and More Unique Classes
From Mad Men to Scrabble, see 18 unique university offerings.
<p>1. <b><a href="http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/campus/history-professor-brings-mad-men-s-don-draper-into-the-classroom-1.2408039#.Ton6vOw-7E0" target="_blank">Consumerism and Social Change in <i>Mad Men</i> America, 1960-1963 (Northwestern University)</a></b></p> <p>AMC’s <i>Mad Men</i> has developed a wildly devoted following in four short seasons, spotlighting the effects of social change and consumerism on middle-class Americans in the late 1950s and early ‘60s. Northwestern University Professor Michael Allen considers the show to be the perfect reference point on which to base the curriculum for his popular freshman history course, “<a href="http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/campus/history-professor-brings-mad-men-s-don-draper-into-the-classroom-1.2408039#.TosgQXJdBRd" target="_blank">Consumerism and Social Change in <i>Mad Men</i> America, 1960-1963</a>.” Students complement two episodes of the show’s first season every week with historical texts. Allen told the school’s campus newspaper when the class was first introduced that the show “helps to illuminate the ways that life in the United States was changing and allows me to address a variety of topics including economic growth, changes in the nuclear family, political controversies, race relations and sex, and sexuality in the late ‘50s and early '60s.”</p>