The study of a past society in terms of what it consumes rather than what it produces is a relatively new development. This is the first of three volumes to examine history from this perspective, by 26 leading subject specialists.

Chapter 1 Introduction, John Brewer, Roy Porter; Part 1 Problems, Methods and Concepts; Chapter 2 Corning up for Air: Consumer Culture in Historical Perspective, Jean-Christophe Agnew; Chapter 3 Understanding Traditional and Modern Patterns of Consumption in Eighteenth-Century England: A Character-Action Approach, Colin Campbell; Chapter 4 Consumption: Disease of The Consumer Society?, Roy Porter; Part 2 Goods and Consumption; Chapter 5 Between Purchasing Power and the World of Goods: Understanding the Household Economy in Early Modern Europe, Jan de Vriesm; Chapter 6 European Consumption and Asian Production in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, John E. Jr Wills; Chapter 7 Res et Verba: Conspicuous Consumption in the Early Modern World, Peter Burke; Chapter 8 Consumption in Early Modern Social Thought, Joyce Appleby; Part 3 Production and the Meaning of Possessions; Chapter 9 Changes in English and Anglo-American Consumption from 1550 to 1800, Carole Shammas; Chapter 10 The Meaning of Consumer Behaviour in Late Seventeenth- and early Eighteenth-Century England, Lorna Weatherill; Chapter 11 The Production and Marketing of Populuxe Goods in Eighteenth-Century Paris, Cissie Fairchilds; Chapter 12 The Meanings of Things: Interpreting the Consumer Economy in the Eighteenth Century, T. H. Breen; Chapter 13 The Changing Roles of Food in the Study of Consumption, Sidney W. Mintz; Chapter 14 Women and the World of Goods: a Lancashire Consumer and her Possessions, 1751-81, Amanda Vickery; Part 4 Literacy and Numeracy; Chapter 15 Literacy in Context: Meaning and Measurement in Early Modern England, David Cressy; Chapter 16 Reckoning with Commerce: Numeracy in Eighteenth-Century America, Patricia Cline Cohen; Chapter 17 Teaching in the Market-Place, or 'Caesar Adsum Jam Forte: Pompey Aderat': the Retailing of Knowledge in Provincial England During the Eighteenth Century, John Money; Part 5 The Consumption of Culture: Books and Newspapers; Chapter 18 The Book Trade in Eastern Europe in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries, Iaroslav Isaievych; Chapter 19 Selling it to the Provinces: News and Commerce Round Eighteenth-Century Salisbury, C. Y. Ferdinand; Chapter 20 The Business of Political Enlightenment in France, 1770-1800, Jeremy D. Popkin; Part 6 Consumption, Objects and Images; Chapter 21 Reading and Writing with Nature: A Materialist Approach to French Formal Gardens, Chandra Mukerji; Chapter 22 Presuming Images and Consuming Words: The Visualization of Knowledge from the Enlightenment to Post-Modernism, Barbara Maria Stafford; Chapter 23 Perishable Commodities: Dutch Still-Life Painting and the 'Empire of Things', Simon Schama; Chapter 24 The Consuming Flame: Electrical Showmen and Tory Mystics in the World of Goods, Simon Schaffer; Chapter 25 Manufacturing, Consumption and Design in Eighteenth-Century England, John Styles;