Christ College

Alumni Reading Groups

Christ College Alumni Reading Groups have met in Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Denver, Boston, and Washington DC. Coordinated and led by CC alumni and friends, the groups explore compelling topics of the times.

Reading Group "Syllabus"	Texts, Movies, and Websites
Spring 2011: Consumer Culture	T. J. Jackson Lears, “From Salvation to Self-Realization: Advertising and the Therapeutic Roots of the Consumer Culture, 1880-1930,” originally published in Lears and Richard Wightman Fox, eds., The Culture of Consumption (Pantheon, 1983), available online here. Bruce Barton, The Man Nobody Knows (1925). Available as revised edition or eBook. “In the Suburbs,” promotional video for Redbook magazine, 1957. Available here. Mad Men season 1, episode 3, Marriage of Figaro. “Destination Suburbia,” chapter 7 in Regina Lee Blaszczyk, American Consumer Society, 1865-2005, From Hearth to HDTV (2009), 198-214. Pietra Rivoli, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade (Wiley, 2009 edition). Virginia Postrel, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value is Remaking Commerce, Culture and Consciousness (HarperCollins, 2003) Consumer Society
Spring 2010: The Lincolns (PDF)	Abraham Lincoln, James McPherson The Portable Abraham Lincoln, edited by Andrew Delbanco Mary Todd Lincoln, Jean Baker Lincoln at the Millennium, Barry Schwartz The Madness of Mary Lincoln New Mary Lincoln Letter Discovered Ann Rutledge in American Memory: The Erosion of a Romantic Drama
Spring 2009: Inventing the Body (PDF)	Thin, directed by Lauren Greenfield How We Die, Sherwin Nuland The Body Project, Joan Brumberg Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
Spring 2008: What Makes a Life Significant? (PDF)	Leading Lives that Matter, Mark Schwehn and Dorothy Bass Mountains Beyond Mountains, Tracy Kidder It's A Wonderful Life, directed by Frank Capra Groundhog Day, directed by Harold Ramis, 1993 Changing Lanes, directed by Roger Michell, 2002
Spring 2007: Making Things Right (PDF)	Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works, Davies and Evans The Nonviolent Atonement, J. Denny Weaver
Spring 2006: Faith and the Public Sphere (PDF)	The Bible in American Public Life, Mark Noll America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln One Nation Under God, Andrew R. Murphy The Naked Public Square, Richard John Neuhaus Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism, Cornel West Between Sundays: Black Women and Everyday Struggles of Faith, Marla F. Frederick Bonhoeffer, Martin Doblmeier