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The Politics of Consumption: Material Culture and Citizenship in Europe and America

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title The Politics of Consumption: Material Culture and Citizenship in Europe and America
Authors and Contributors      Edited by Martin Daunton
Edited by Matthew Hilton
SeriesLeisure, Consumption and Culture
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:320
Dimensions(mm): Height 234,Width 156
Category/GenreEconomic theory and philosophy
Macroeconomics
ISBN/Barcode 9781859734711
ClassificationsDewey:339.4709
Audience
General
Illustrations illustrations, bibliography, index

Publishing Details

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint Berg Publishers
Publication Date 1 June 2001
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Objects and commodities have frequently been studied to assess their position within consumer - or material - culture, but all too rarely have scholars examined the politics that lie behind that culture. This book fills the gap and explores the political and state structures that have shaped the consumer and the nature of his or her consumption. From medieval sumptuary laws to recent debates in governments about consumer protection, consumption has always been seen as a highly political act that must be regulated, directed or organized according to the political agendas of various groups. An internationally renowned group of experts looks at the emergence of the rational consuming individual in modern economic thought, the moral and ideological values consumers have attached to their relationships with commodities, and how the practices and theories of consumer citizenship have developed alongside and within the expanding state. How does consumer identity become available to people and how do they use it? How is consumption negotiated in a dictatorship? Are material politics about state politics, consumer politics, or the relationship between these and consumer practices? From the specifics of the politics of consumption in the French Revolution - what was the status of rum? How complicated did a vinegar recipe have to be before the resultant product qualified as 'luxury'? - to the highly contentious twentieth-century debates over American political economy, this original book traces the relationships among political cultures, consumers and citizenship from the eighteenth century to the present.

Author Biography

Martin Daunton Professor of Economic History,University of Cambridge Matthew Hilton University of Birmingham

Reviews

'This book will provide a rich source of information for those working in the field.' The Economic History Review