A Cultural History of Shopping in the Age of Enlightenment

The ‘consumer revolution’ of the eighteenth century has been the subject of much debate amongst historians but it seems clear there was also a ‘retail revolution’: a period of unprecedented growth in material goods was accompanied by a proliferation of retail techniques which brought new fashions and imported commodities to the homes of consumers. Governments responded to a growing culture of polite and civilized behaviour across society by stimulating urban renewal for leisure and shopping: new pavements, street lighting, green promenades, theatres, coffee houses, and adjacent shopping streets were laid-out everywhere in Europe. As the eighteenth century drew to its close, ‘shopping’ had become a publicly accepted and celebrated leisure pursuit, gaining its proper meaning in multiple languages. A Cultural History of Shopping in the Age of Enlightenment 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.