The empire of things: how we became a world of consumers, from the fifteenth century to the twenty-first

What we consume has become a central, perhaps the central, element of personal identity, public life, and political debate.

The world is overflowing with things, and people are spending more and more time and money consuming them.

This book unfolds the history that has shaped the modern and material world, from the take-off of consumption in the 18th century to the present, and engages fully with contemporary concerns about consumerism and consumer society.