Luxury in Global Perspective: Objects and Practices, 1600–2000

Karin Hofmeester · Bernd-Stefan Grewe

nov 2016 · Cambridge University Press

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Global history is predicated on connections and exchange: how connections between far-flung people, places, and objects are forged through a variety of exchanges. As world history has matured as a field, its practitioners have found the movement of commodities between peoples, places, and time a fruitful vehicle for research and teaching. Studies of 'bulk' items like salt, spices, coffee, and other globally-traded commodities abound, but few scholars have examined the role of luxury goods from a global perspective. This anthology charts the many different contexts in which luxury objects have been used across the globe, ranging from the social practices linked to these objects to their production, exchange, and consumption, as well as how these practices varied over time and space and how different societies attributed diverse meanings to the same objects. Using luxury goods as a conduit, Luxury in Global Perspective enriches our understanding of global history.

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Karin Hofmeester is senior researcher at the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam and Professor of Jewish Culture at Antwerp University.

Bernd-Stefan Grewe is Professor of Modern History and Didactics of History at the University of Education in Freiburg, Germany.