Product details
Biographical note
Vicki Howard is Visiting Fellow in the Department of History, University of Essex, UK.A Cultural History of Shopping was a Library Journal Best in Reference selection for 2022.
In the modern consumer age that emerged after the First World War, shopping became a ubiquitous cultural practice. Despite its apparent universality, the historicity and contingency of shopping should not be ignored: its meaning was always inextricably linked to the political, material and economic contexts within which it took place. Gendered female for the most part, shopping continued to evoke different cultural responses, embraced as liberatory by some, condemned as frivolous by others. Business decisions and public policies helped construct the frameworks within which new, often American-led, shopping cultures emerged, from downtown department stores to chain stores to suburban shopping malls. The digital revolution in shopping that began in the last decade of the 20th century has changed the face of cities and towns and led to the closure of many bricks-and-mortar stores but, as this volume explores, the shopper remains very much at the center of Western capitalist societies.
A Cultural History of Shopping in the Modern Age presents an overview of the period with themes addressing practices and processes; spaces and places; shoppers and identities; luxury and everyday; home and family; visual and literary representations; reputation, trust and credit; and governance, regulation and the state.
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Series Preface, Jon Stobart
Introduction, Vicki Howard
1. Practices and Processes, Sarah Elvins
2. Spaces and Places, Alison Hulme
3. Shoppers and Identities, Joshua L. Carreiro
4. Luxury and Everyday, Vicki Howard
5. Home and Family, Helen Sheumaker
6. Visual and Literary Representations, Angelica Michelis
7. Reputation, Trust and Credit, Franck Cochoy, Johan Hagberg and Hans Kjellberg
8. Governance, Regulation and the State, Jan Logemann
Bibliography
Index
The Cultural Histories are multi-volume sets that survey the social and cultural construction of specific subjects across six historical periods, broadly:
- Antiquity
- The Medieval Age
- The Early Modern Age
- The Age of Enlightenment
- The Age of Empire
- The Modern Age
The subjects covered range from Animals to Dress and Fashion, from Sport to Furniture, from Money to Fairy Tales. Each volume discusses the same themes in its chapters so that readers may gain an understanding of a period by reading an entire volume, or follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume. Each six-volume set is illustrated.
Titles are available as printed sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a one-off purchase and tangible reference for their shelves, or as part of a fully searchable digital library available to institutions by annual subscription or perpetual access (see www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com).
PRAISE FOR THE SERIES
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CHOICE
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“A thick, tangled and deliciously idiosyncratic history of hair.”
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A Cultural History of Work
“[Programs] such as economics, American and world history, women’s studies, and art history will benefit from the information herein.”
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