Luxury in the Eighteenth Century - by M Berg & E Eger (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This volume explores the political, economic, moral, and intellectual effects of the production and consumption of luxury goods in the 18th century. The history of luxury links diverse topics of enquiry such as material culture, taste, civility and sensibility, literature, and art. The text provides a broadly-based account from a variety of perspectives, addressing key themes of economic debate, material culture, the principles of art and taste, luxury as "female vice," and the exotic.

Review Quotes

'This volume significantly advances our knowledge of the topic and makes clear, once and for all, that a decisive change occurred in the long eighteenth century. It also...points the way forward to an approach that combines an account of values and beliefs with the detailed analysis of specific material goods.' - John Brewer, John and Marion Sullivan University Professor, University of Chicago, USA

'In this volume late twentieth-century scholars fasten with enthusiasm on both the practicalities that created evermore consumer goods and exalted luxury, and on the philosophical controversies and imaginative literature that it endangered. They marry literature and history in a most stimulating collection...This is a thought-provoking book...The text establishes an impressive network of connections not only between literature and history, but with moral philosophy and aesthetics as well. It will surely spark more investigations of consumerism and luxury.' - Joan Thirsk, Literature and History

'[In] Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger's excellent new collection of essays, Luxury in the Eighteenth Century...we find a subtle historical argument that describes how the concept of luxury emerged from inherited moral and religious discourses, to become an integral part of our understanding of modernity' - David Mazella, Eighteenth Century Studies

'Luxury in the Eighteenth Century provides both a synopsis of existing literature on the subject and a major step forward in tis analysis. It is an important academic landmark. It is refreshing that Asian and American viewpoints are embraced, adding depth and an important corrective to our understanding of the English 'long eighteenth century'.' - Helen Clifford, Journal of Design History

About the Author

MAXINE BERG Professor of History and Director of the Warwick Eighteenth-Century Centre at the University of Warwick, UK ELIZABETH EGER Lecturer in the Department of English, King's College London, UK EDWARD HUNDERT Professor Emeritus of History, University of British Columbia, Canada JAN DE VRIES Professor of History and Economics, University of California, Berkeley, USA ANNIE RICHARDSON Lecturer at the Winchester School of Art, UK MICHAEL MCKEON is Professor of English at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA DENA GOODMAN Professor of History, University of Michigan, USA LAURENCE FONTAINE Professor of History, The European University Institute and CRNS, Paris, France JOHN STYLES Director of the MA in the History of Design, V&A/Royal College of Art, UK VIVIEN JONES Senior Lecturer in English, University of Leeds, UK ROS BALLASTER Fellow and Tutor in English Literature, Mansfield College, Oxford, UK JOHN CROWLEY George Munro Professor of History, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada JENNY UGLOW Honorary Professor of the Department of English, University of Warwick, UK SHELAGH VAINKER Curator of Eastern Arts at the Ashmolean, Oxford and Fellow of St. Hugh's College, Oxford, UK REBECCA EARLE Lecturer in Comparative American Studies, University of Warwick, UK.