Book Review: The Politics of Consumption: Material Culture and Citizenship in Europe and America

Abstract

The Politics of Consumption arises from a colloquium on ‘Material politics: states, consumers and political cultures’ held at Churchill College, Cambridge on 3–5 September 1999. Discussions were lively, stimulating, provocative and entertaining – not least because the participants created a relaxed and friendly environment for critical and constructive engagement with the papers. The editors would particularly like to thank the commentators and chairs whose remarks on each panel helped us to define the major themes of this book. Unfortunately, reasons of space mean that we are not able to include their comments nor all of the papers given at the colloquium, but their ideas and insights will be found throughout the volume. In particular we would like to thank Tony Badger, Chris Bonnell, Geoff Crossick, Ben Fine, Peter Gurney, James Obelkevich, Manuel Schramm, John Styles, Nick Tiratsoo, Jim Tomlinson, James Vernon and John Walton.