Household gods : the British and their possessions / Deborah Cohen.
By: Cohen, Deborah
.
Material type: 
BookPublisher: New Haven : Yale University Press, c2006Description: xvii, 296 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 25 cm. + hbk.ISBN: 0300112130 ; 9780300112139.Subject(s): Decorative arts -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century | Decorative arts -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century | Social values -- Great Britain | Materialism -- Great Britain | Retail trade -- Great Britain | Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century | Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 1918-1945 | Great Britain -- Commerce -- Social aspectsDDC classification: 941.081 | Item type | Current library | Call number | Copy number | Status | Barcode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General lending | MTU Crawford College of Art and Design Library Lending | 941.081 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 00192318 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
At what point did the British develop their mania for interiors, wallpaper, furniture, and decoration? Why have the middle classes developed so passionate an attachment to the contents of their homes? This absorbing book offers surprising answers to these questions, uncovering the roots of today's consumer society and investigating the forces that shape consumer desires. Richly illustrated, Household Gods chronicles a hundred years of British interiors, focusing on class, choice, shopping, and possessions.
Exploring a wealth of unusual records and archives, Deborah Cohen locates the source of modern consumerism and materialism in early nineteenth-century religious fervor. Over the course of the Victorian era, consumerism shed the taint of sin to become the preeminent means of expressing individuality. The book ranges from musty antique shops to luxurious emporia, from suburban semi-detached houses to elegant city villas, from husbands fretting about mantelpieces to women appropriating home decoration as a feminist cause. It uncovers a society of consumers whose identities have become entwined with the things they put in their houses.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [263]-284) and index.
The British at home -- Material good: morality and the well-to-do -- Cathedrals to commerce: shoppers and entrepreneurs -- Art at home: how the house became artistic -- In possession: men, women, and decoration -- Home as a stage: personality and possessions -- Designs on the past: antiques as a faith -- Modern living: the triumph of safety first -- Your neighbour's house.