Spaces of Consumption: Leisure and Shopping in the English Town, c.1680-1830

Description

Front Cover; Spaces of Consumption; Copryight Page; Contents; List of figures; List of tables; Acknowledgements; 1. Leisure, consumption and shopping; 2. The region: hierarchies and spatial ordering; 3. The town: politeness and place; 4. The street: stage-set and performance; 5. The building: representation and display; 6. The individual: social practices and identity; 7. Advertisements: re-producing spaces of polite consumption; 8. Conclusions; Notes; Select bibliography; Index.;Consumption is well established as a key theme in the study of the eighteenth century. Spaces of Consumption brings a new dimension to this subject by looking at it spatially. Taking English towns as its scene, this inspiring study focuses on moments of consumption - selecting and purchasing goods, attending plays, promenading - and explores the ways in which these were related together through the spaces of the town: the shop, the theatre and the street. Using this fresh form of analysis, it has much to say about sociability, politeness and respectability in the eighteenth.