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This book explores students' consumer practices and material desires in nineteenth-century Oxford. Consumerism surged among undergraduates in the 1830s and decreased by contrast from the 1860s as students learned to practice restraint and make wiser choices, putting a brake on past excessive consumption habits. This study concentrates on the minority of debtors, the daily lives of undergraduates, and their social and economic environment. It scrutinises the variety of goods that were on offer, paying special attention to their social and symbolic uses and meanings. Through emulation and self-display, undergraduate culture impacted the formation of male identities and spending habits. Using Oxford students as a case study, this book opens new pathways in the history of consumption and capitalism, revealing how youth consumer culture intertwined with the rise of competition among tradesmen and university reforms in the 1850s and 1860s.
List of contents
Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. College Life and the Local Economy.- Chapter 3. Male Consumption and Students' Tastes.- Chapter 4. Undergraduate Culture and Male Consumer Behaviour.- Chapter 5. The Formation of Spending Habits.- Chapter 6. Consumer Credit Traps and Student Consumerism.- Chapter 7. Excessive Consumption and Insolvency.- Chapter 8. An Emerging Anti-Consumerist Culture?.- Chapter 9. Conclusion
About the author
Sabine Chaouche is Professor of Cultural History and Associate Dean ¿at Sunway University, Malaysia.
