From the History of Consumption to the History of Capitalism

Frank Trentmann's remarkable book Empire of Things came out to great acclaim in 2016, 'a thoroughly encapsulating and enjoyable account', according to one typical review.¹ Even in a critical assessment of the book, Adam Tooze accurately called it 'a compendium of an entire generation of research'.² If it is 'massively ambitious', as Carlos Lozada wrote in the Washington Post, it fulfills most of those ambitions admirably.³

It is hard to imagine another survey of consumer history since 1500 that could match Trentmann's magnum opus in terms of breadth, imagination, critical acumen, superb use of examples, command of secondary sources and quality of prose. One of the most prolific historians of consumer society, Trentmann, who teaches at Birkbeck College, University of London, is, as a writer, editor, and director of a successful, large-scale, multi-year project on 'Cultures of Consumption' that resulted in many publications, as well positioned as anyone to undertake such a daunting task. The hundreds of intricate details in the book rarely detract from the big picture. Trentmann has a genius for deploying the obscure fact, statistic or anecdote to perfectly illustrate his argument. For example, we learn in a section on distance that 'In the 1830s, a Londoner's wheat and flour came from 2,420 miles away. By the 1870s, it was double that'. (p. 116) In a section on time, we are told that 'In 1958, industrial workers had to sweat four hours for a pound of coffee; by 1993, a mere 18 minutes'. (p. 339) These concrete examples show rather than tell the impact of history on everyday life. If, occasionally, the facts are less clearly connected to the broader argument, as when Trentmann tells us that Jonas Hanway was first man to carry an umbrella (p. 90) or that Jesuits and Dominicans were the first 'chocoholics', (p. 84), these details more often historicize and concretize the development of a material culture of consumption.

While Empire of Goods functions as a masterly survey of the field, it is far more than that. Trentmann also regularly offers bracing critiques and correctives, as when he notes that the 'greatest single omission of the history of consumption is geopolitics'. (p. 119) The book would make perfect reading for a graduate student taking a comprehensive examination in consumer history since it is transnational, comparative, lucid, and unafraid to point to weaknesses in the field. If, in spite of this, the book reflects many of the limitations of consumer history, it also showcases its achievements.

Trentmann's own achievements in this volume are many and remarkable. Empire of Things consists of two substantial parts, both of which almost qualify as books in themselves. Part I is historical and proceeds chronologically and Part II is genealogical and proceeds topically. If, ultimately, these sections sit in tension with one another, they also demonstrate how different modes of inquiry generate different responses. In Part I, he resists and critiques the efforts of commentators to treat consumer society as a special category requiring moralistic commentary. Yet the calls for a suspension of moralism in the first section are challenged by the serious ethical quandaries discussed in the second part, including how overconsumption might exacerbate economic inequality and climate change, and lead to feelings of spiritual emptiness.

Moreover, Trentmann warns against viewing consumption or 'consumer society' as a monolith. Throughout the book, he evinces a multi-perspectival approach as he examines consumption in many different ways that he lays out in the introduction, including individual/system, ideas/power, social relations, and value systems. (p. 5) He also introduces four 'frameworks', including periodization, geography, characters, and politics. (p. 10) He repeatedly reminds readers that acts of private consumption cannot tell the whole story of consumer society. Taken as a whole Trentmann misses very little and incorporates many approaches to consumer history.

Trentmann also warns against isolating consumer society from the economic systems in which it has been situated...