Description
Book SynopsisMartin finds that objects not only reflect culture, they are the means to create it.
Trade ReviewA wonderful book. It is impressively researched, logically organized, and well written. And far more than most accounts of the colonial backcountry, it introduces real people making choices about how to construct their worlds and how to present themselves to their neighbors and friends. -- Daniel B. Thorp Journal of Southern History 2009 By salvaging and examining the transactions of one merchant operating in the Atlantic economy of the period, [Martin] reveals much that is valuable about the world of goods and indicates several possible directions for future study. -- Michelle Craig McDonald Business History Review 2009 The writing is lively and easily understandable, and the mixture of methods used to study the accounts of Hook and the vast variety of topics addressed result in a book that would have broad appeal to antique and historic house enthusiasts, re-enactors and local historians. -- Mary Ferrari Roanoke Times 2009 The best study we have to date of early American consumerism. -- Paul G. E. Clemens Reviews in American History 2009 An important contribution to the study of consumption in early America that also provides wonderful insight into the significant role of objects in illuminating the past. -- Adrienne D. Hood William and Mary Quarterly 2010 This is a book that quite forcefully offers an interdisciplinary analysis based on the abilities of the art historian and the economic historian, a person at ease with artifacts and dusty will books and skilled at describing local vernacular architecture and long-distance consumer behavior. It joins the list of must-read books for anyone interested in economic behavior and consumer practices in the early modern Atlantic basin. -- Peter C. Mancall Winterthur Portfolio 2009 Exceptional. An analytical model that will advance the field of material culture. -- Trudy Eden The Historian 2011
Table of ContentsSeries Editor's Foreword
Preface
Introduction: In Backcountry Time
1. The Business of Revolutions: John Hook and the Atlantic World
William Mead's Scottish Clock
2. Getting the Goods: Local Acquisition in a Tobacco Economy
The Iron Plate
3. Accounting for Life: Objects, Names, and Numbers
The Ledger
4. Living the Backcountry: Styles and Standards
The Wade Cabin in Backcountry Time
5. Setting the Stage, Playing the Part: Stores as Shopping Spaces
Ribbons of Desire
6. Suckey's Looking Glass: African Americans as Consumers
Mirrors and Meanings
Epilogue: Country Gentleman in a New Country: John Hook's Beef
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index
