Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers by Frank Trentmann This is a book about, well, stuff — what, how and why we consume. The author, a historian, chronicles consumer culture over six centuries in a detailed and scholarly exposition, in the least dull way imaginable. The acquisition, flow and use of “things” characterises much of our lives, and Trentmann goes to great lengths to help us understand how material consumption unfolded, all the way from Renaissance Italy (where households started accumulating silverware and tableware as markers of domestic sociability and politeness) and late Ming China to today’s global economy and our modern material world. The influence of trade routes and conquests on tastes is curious, as is the author’s description of the role and continuity of coffee, tobacco, cotton, pensions and credit cards. As impressive as the details are, the book is about more than consumerism through the ages. You learn, for example, that consumption has th...
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