Description
Book SynopsisBoycotts are so commonplace these days that one hardly notices them, and yet they have a fascinating history, one closely connected to the growth of the British Empire and the birth of a consumer society. Consuming Anxieties asks why this mode of political protest has proved so influential over the past two hundred years, and why it was particularly useful in anticolonial struggles. It answers these questions through new readings of literary works by Jonathan Swift, Tobias Smollett, and others, as well as through investigations of eighteenth-century political and economic discourses connected with consumer culture and colonialism.
The book examines the history of consumer protests against colonialism from 1713 to 1833from the Treaty of Utrecht to the abolition of slavery in the British Caribbean. Recognizing the impact of consumerism on perceptions of the colonial periphery during this period reveals the crucial role of commodity fetishism in colonialist ideology. At th
Trade Review
"Sussman. . . . pulls off the difficult task of writing a truly interdisciplinary study. . . .—Slavery and Abolition
"This is an insightful and welcome treatment of an important subject . . . .The style and substance of this volume are evident." -- Canadian Journal of History
"An illuminating study." -- Albion
"Consuming Anxieties is an absorbing book that deserves to be read and reread. . . . Sussman brilliantly recreates the cultural milieu in which sentimental abolitionism took root." -- International History Review
"[An] interesting and well-written book." -- Slavery and Abolition
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. Colonialism and the politics of consumerism; 2. From curiosity to commodity: Swift's writings of the 1720s; 3. Foreign objects, domestic spaces: transculturation in Humphry Clinker; 4. Women and the politics of sugar, 1972; 5. 'Reading before praying': ladies' antislavery societies, textuality, political action, and The History of Mary Prince; 6. Overseeing violence: sentimental vision and slave labor; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
