Consuming Splendor

In this summary you will learn

• How seventeenth-century English society became a cradle of modern consumerism
• How globalization and increasing affluence affected England in the 1600s
• How shopping centers evolved as early public squares
• Why moralists opposed luxury consumption

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Why you should read Consuming Splendor

If you think conspicuous consumption is a modern trend, or that globalization and outsourcing are recent phenomena, historian Linda Levy Peck has news for you. In this study, she explains that the English folk of four centuries ago were ever eager to keep up with the Joneses by blowing some of their disposable income on silks, paintings, chocolate and other pricey items that weren't exactly necessities. Indeed, their appetite for the finer things helped pave the way for today's mass materialism and international trade. A taste for fancy goods isn't so new, nor is debate over what shopping means to the structure of society. Levy Peck's professorial prose is dense, but her theme is eye-opening. getAbstract recommends this overview to anyone who'd like to understand what motivates consumers now and has motivated them for centuries.

About the Author

Linda Levy Peck is Columbian Professor of History at George Washington University. Her previous books include Northampton: Patronage and Policy at the Court of James I and Court Patronage and Corruption in Early Stuart England.