How do I view files and folders in a list?

To change the default for all folders *, Open the file manager and when the window is active move the mouse pointer to the top left of the top panel and you will see:

Select Edit -> Preferences -> Views (tab) -> View new folders using then select your preferred view type (in your case it would be 'List').

To change the default view for just that folder, select View -> List from the menu, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + 2

*Note that in the first step the default preferences will not be used for any folders you have manually changed view type on in the past. To reset this, see this question then apply the new default preference.

In newer versions of Ubuntu you can click the list button on the taskbar: