On “A Brief History Malls”
missrini October 17th, 2007
In his essay on ” A Brief History of Malls” Kenneth T. Jackson poses the mall as a premier symbol of American culture: “the perfect fusion of the profit motive and the egalitarian ideal”. He traces the origin of the mall as far back as the Middle Ages and from then enumerates the emergence of malls around the world. From the Jerusalem Bazaar to London’s Burlington Arcade to the Galleria Emanuele II in Milan, malls have long been established as a center of commercial interaction. The proliferation of underground malls, especially in Montreal and as far as Osaka, are also worth noting. Jackson emphasizes that though malls were essentially invented in Europe, in the United States they gained such unforeseen momentum that within a quarter-century malls transformed the ways in which Americans lived and worked. That by the 1970’s Americans spent the most time in malls after home and work emphasizes this fact. To deny the influence of the mall in American culture would be incorrect in light of the information the author provides in his essay, however, to say that the mall has gained the status of a sole representation of American culture, is too much of an extrapolation. There are plenty of other better symbols that could encapsulate American society; the “Big Apple”, for example, can be seen as a place where people from all over the world can pursue the “American dream”.
