Prof. Axel Schäfer, 'The “Tempest Tost” and the “People of Plenty”: Migration and the Politics of Consumption in the U.S. Since the 1880s'

Axel Schäfer, Professor in American Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, and of U.S. History at the Obama Institute, joins us in this episode. He discusses the paper he gave in our seminar, titled 'The “Tempest Tost” and the “People of Plenty”: Migration and the Politics of Consumption in the U.S. Since the 1880s.'Professor Schäfer examines the relationship between immigration, consumer capitalism, and welfare state-building from the 1880s through the twentieth century. He discusses how consumerism, while seemingly more inclusive than citizenship, still reinforces ethnoracial stratifications.Schäfer considers how the figure of the consumer emerged during the transition from producer to consumer capitalism, and locates a contradictory dynamic of consumer society, as contingent upon both the affluent consumer and the cheap laborer, and (quoting Schäfer), ‘by the same token, if you look at the subjectivities again, self-images, you need both the kind of unhinged consumer and the regimented worker.’Co-hosted by: PhD Candidate Megan Renoir, who researches Indigenous sovereignty and land conflict.Co-hosted by: PhD Candidate, Kris Dekatris, who researches radical political dissent to US foreign policy between the First World War and the Vietnam War.Production by Daisy Semmler (MPhil 2025).