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Dr. Susan Matt

Professor of History
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Endowed Professor

Office -Social Science 248
Phone - (801)626-7325
Fax - (801)626-7613 
Email - smatt@weber.edu

Research and Teaching Areas: Gilded Age and Progressive Era, consumerism, women, cultural and social, history of emotions

Degrees: B.A., University of Chicago (1989); M.A., Ph.D., Cornell University (1992, 1996)

Courses:

  • HIST 1700 American Civilization
  • HIST 3070 Women in American History: 1600-Present
  • HIST 3090 American Social History
  • HIST 3110 American Ideas and Culture
  • HIST 3130 U.S. Urban History
  • HIST 4050 Gilded Age and Progressive Era
  • HIST 4060 Twentieth Century United States: 1919-1945

Books

Articles & Essays
  • "You Can't Go Home Again: Homesickness and Nostalgia in U.S. History,"
     Journal of American History, September 2007.
  • "A Hunger for Home: Homesickness and Food in a Global Consumer Society," Journal of American Culture (Spring 2007).
  • "Why the Old Fashioned is in Fashion in American Houses," in Producing Fashion: Commerce, Culture, and Consumers, Regina Lee Blaszczyk, editor (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007).
  • "There's No Place Like Home: Homesickness and Homemaking in America," in American Behavioral History, Peter Stearns, editor (New York: New York University Press, 2005).
  • "Envy and Jealousy," in Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood: In History and Society, Paula Fass, editor, (New York: MacMillan, 2003).
  • "Children's Envy and the Emergence of the Modern Consumer Ethic, 1890-1930,"  Journal of Social History (December 2002).
  • "The Biography of Juliet Corson," American National Biography (Oxford University Press, 1999)
  • "Constance Rourke: A Biographical Sketch," in Women in World History (Yorkin Publications, Waterford CT., 1999)
  • Mary Richmond: A Biographical Sketch," in Women in World History (Yorkin Publications, Waterford CT., 1999)
  • "Frocks, Finery and Feelings: Rural and Urban Women's Envy, 1890-1930," in An Emotional History of the United States , Peter Stearns and Jan Lewis, eds. (New York: New York University Press, 1998)
Reviews
  • Sold American: Consumption and Citizenship, 1890-1945 by Charles McGovern, Enterprise and Society (2007)
  • Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Idea of the Consumer by Kathleen G. Donohue, American Historical Review, (June 2007)
  • Born Losers: A History of Failure in America by Scott A. Sandage, American Historical Review (October 2006)
  • Raising Consumers: Children and the American Mass Market in the Early Twentieth Century by Lisa Jacobson, Journal of Social History (Summer 2006)
  • Birth of a Salesman: The Transformation of Selling in America by Walter A. Friedman, American Historical Review (February 2005)
  • The Cute and the Cool: Wondrous Innocence and Modern American Children's Culture by Gary Cross and Some Wore Bobby Sox: The Emergence of Teenage Girls' Culture, 1920-1945 by Kelly Schrum, Journal of American History (June 2005)
  • Talk of Love: Why Culture Matters by Ann Swidler, Journal of Social History (Fall 2004)
  • Refined Tastes: Sugar, Confectionery, and Consumers in Nineteenth-Century America by Wendy A. Woloson, Journal of Social History (Summer 2004)
  • Sowing the American Dream: How Consumer Culture Took Root in the Rural Midwest by David Blanke, in Journal of Social History (Fall 2002)
  • 1898: The Birth of the American Century by David Traxel, in New York History (Winter 2001).

Awards and Affiliations

  • Visiting Fellow, Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection, 2007
  • Research Travel Award, John Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History, Duke University Library, March 2000
  • Jeanne Humphrey Block Dissertation Award, The Henry Murray Center, Radcliffe College, June 1993
  • Cornell University Women's Studies/President's Council of Cornell Women Summer Research Grant, Summer 1993
  • Mellon Fellowship, 1994-95, 1992
  • Philip Merrill Fellowship for the teaching of Western Civilization, 1990-1991

Weber State University, Department of History
Ogden, Utah 84408-1205
history@weber.edu, 801-626-6706