Revolutionary things: material culture and politics in the late eighteenth-century Atlantic world

Abstract

"Historian Ashli White explores the circulation of material culture during the American, French, and Haitian revolutions, arguing that in the late eighteenth century, radical ideals were contested through objects as well as in texts. She considers how revolutionary things, as they moved throughout the Atlantic, brought people into contact with these transformative political movements in visceral, multiple, and provocative ways. Focusing on a range of objects--ceramics and furniture, garments and accessories, prints, maps, and public amusements--White shows how material culture held political meaning for diverse populations. Enslaved and free, women and men, poor and elite--all turned to things as a means to realize their varied and sometimes competing visions of revolutionary change."--Dust jacket.

Contents

Introduction: object lessons from the revolutionary Atlantic -- What's old is new -- Makers and markets in revolutionary times -- Seizing the status quo -- Political appearances -- Clothing the cause -- Dangerous trifles -- Seeing revolutions -- Cartographic contests -- People in print -- Terrible amusements -- Conclusion: what remains.