Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First

Author(s): Frank Trentmann

History

What we consume has become the defining feature of our lives: our economies live or die by spending, we are treated more as consumers than workers, and even public services are presented to us as products in a supermarket. In this monumental study, acclaimed historian Frank Trentmann unfolds the extraordinary history that has shaped our material world, from late Ming China, Renaissance Italy and the British empire to the present. Astonishingly wide-ranging and richly detailed, Empire of Things explores how we have come to live with so much more, how this changed the course of history, and the global challenges we face as a result.

General Information

  • : 9780141028743
  • : Penguin Books Ltd
  • : Penguin Books Ltd
  • : 0.368
  • : January 2017
  • : 198mm X 129mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : April 2017
  • : books

Other Specifications

  • : Frank Trentmann
  • : Paperback
  • : 417
  • : 339.47
  • : 880

More About The Product

Utterly fascinating ... What makes Trentmann's book such a pleasure to read is not just the wealth of detail or the staggering international range, but the refreshing absence of moaning or moralising about our supposed addiction to owning more stuff -- Dominic Sandbrook Sunday Times You can't not learn something new here ... [An] epic tale -- Marcus Tanner Independent A history not merely of consumption (and attitudes toward consumption) but also of the very idea of goods as a thing to be produced and consumed. Every page fascinates -- Stephen L. Carter, 'Great History Books of 2016' Bloomberg I read Empire Of Things with unflagging fascination ... [Trentmann] is not only an elegant, adventurous and colourful writer, he also manages the tricky balancing act of being eminently sensible and gleefully provocative -- John Preston Daily Mail A monumental book on a monumental subject ... Rich and illuminating ... No-one who reads it will think about consumer society in the same way Revista de Libros [Empire of Things] is wider in scope geographically, historically and socially than anything preceding it ... The epilogue to this story of consumption is salutary: history is essential to our understanding of the continuing rise in material consumption far beyond a sustainable level Ethical Consumer

Frank Trentmann is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London, and directed the GBP5 million Cultures of Consumption research programme. His last book, Free Trade Nation, won the Whitfield Prize for outstanding historical scholarship and achievement from the Royal Historical Society. He was educated at Hamburg University, the LSE and at Harvard, where he received his PhD. In 2014 he was Moore Distinguished Fellow at Caltech.