Consumer Revolution, 1650-1800

The production, acquisition, and use of consumer goods defines our daily lives, and yet consumerism is seen as increasingly controversial. Movements for sustainable and ethical consumerism are gaining momentum alongside an awareness of how our choices in the marketplace can affect public issues. How did we get here? This volume advances a bold new interpretation of the 'consumer revolution' of the eighteenth century, when European elites, middling classes, and even certain labourers purchased unprecedented quantities of clothing, household goods, and colonial products. Michael Kwass adopts a global perspective that incorporates the expansion of European empires, the development of world trade, and the rise of plantation slavery in the Americas. Kwass analyses the emergence of Enlightenment material cultures, contentious philosophical debates on the morality of consumption, and new forms of consumer activism to offer a fresh interpretation of the politics of consumption in the age of abolitionism and the Atlantic Revolutions.

Product details

• Authors: Michael Kwass, Michael (The Johns Hopkins University Kwass, Michael (The Johns Hopkins University) Kwass, Kwass Michael
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2021
• EAN: 9780521139595
• ISBN: 978-0-521-13959-5
• Dimensions: 155 mm x 230 mm x 20 mm
• Series: New Approaches to European History
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book; Europe, European History, HISTORY / Europe / General, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Consumerism, C 1700 To C 1800, Later 17th century c 1650 to c 1699