Consumption and the World of Goods

by John Brewer (Editor), Roy Porter

Now available in a paperback edition, Consumption and the World of Goods offers a new interpretation of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, one that shapes a new historical landscape based on the consumption of goods and services. Leading specialists from the United States and Europe focus on problems of methodology and historiography, goods and consumption, production and the meaning of possessions, literacy and numeracy, books, newspapers, objects and images. The result is a rich new direction in early modern cultural and social history.

Contributors: Jean-Christophe Agnew, Joyce Appleby, T.H. Breen, John Brewer, Peter Burke, Colin Campbell, Patricia Cline Cohen, David Cressy, Jan de Vries, Cissie Fairchilds, C.Y. Ferdinand, Iaroslav Isaievych, Sidney Mintz, John Money, Chandra Mukerji, Jeremy D. Popkin, Roy Porter, Simon Schaffer

Genres: History, Academic

564 pages, Hardcover

First published March 10, 1993

Reviews

[Martine Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can’t say I’ve read every page of this 650 page doorstep but I have read the essays I’m interested in. The main attraction was Amanda Vickery’s ‘Women and the world of goods’ which was mildly disappointing as it seemed to me to cover very similar ground to The Gentleman’s Daughter, being largely about the same character, Elizabeth Shackleton, and her relationships with material objects. It was as ever a pleasure to re-read these accounts but I don’t think there was anything new.
Roy Porter’s essay on ‘Consumption’ was terrific, but an essay on European and Asian trade was as dry as dust to me, and a few other essays drifted into pretentious academe-speak. Overall, at £70 for the whole doorstop, I’m glad I borrowed it from the library.

[Arjun Pathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jan de Vries on purchasing power - the explication of the industrious revolution as an explanation for simultaneous falling real wages and growing consumption is very compelling and has ideological implications for present consumption. In short, self exploitation for the sake of access to new goods.

[Freddie Bishop · Rating 4 out of 5]

How Burke views history through a lens of deconstructing colonial narratives is admirable, that paired with his flowing prose always makes him a pleasure to read.

[Julaine]

DONE, RETURNED