Consumption and Gender in the Early Seventeenth-Century Household

The World of Alice Le Strange
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-19-923353-3
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 286 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 596 g

Lady Alice Le Strange of Hunstanton in Norfolk kept a continuous series of household accounts from 1610-1654. Jane Whittle and Elizabeth Griffiths have used the Le Stranges' rich archive to reconstruct the material aspects of family life. This involves looking not only at purchases, but also at home production and gifts; and not only at the luxurious, but at the everyday consumption of food and medical care.

Consumption is viewed not just as a set of objects owned, but as a process involving household management, acquisition and appropriation, a process that created and reinforced social links with craftsmen, servants, labourers, and the local community. It is argued that the county gentry provide a missing link in histories of consumption: connecting the fashions of London and the royal court, with those of middling strata of rural England.

Recent writing has focused upon the transformation of consumption patterns in the eighteenth century. Here the earlier context is illuminated and, instead of tradition and stability, we find constant change and innovation. Issues of gender permeate the study. Consumption is often viewed as a female activity and the book looks in detail at who managed the provisioning, purchases, and work within the household, how spending on sons and daughters differed, and whether men and women attached
different cultural values to household goods. This single household's economy provides a window into some of most significant cultural and economic issues of early modern England: innovations in trade, retail and production, the basis of gentry power, social relations in the countryside, and the gendering
of family life.

Zielgruppe

Academics and students of consumption, the social and economic history of early modern England, and gender studies; readers with an interest in the history of food, the history of textiles and costume, and the history of country houses and furnishings

Autoren/Hrsg.

Whittle, Jane

Griffiths, Elizabeth

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Freizeitsoziologie, Konsumsoziologie, Alltagssoziologie, Populärkultur
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wirtschaftsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1: Issues and Context
2: Household Management
3: The Acquisition of Goods
4: Everyday Consumables
5: Material Culture
6: Family Life-Cycle and Consumption
7: Elite Consumption
8: The Employment of Labour
9: Conclusion
Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Whittle, Jane
Dr Jane Whittle is a graduate of Manchester and Oxford Universities. She was appointed as a lecturer in economic and social history at Exeter University in 1995, and has since been promoted to associate professor in history. Her main area of interest is the history of everyday life in late medieval and early modern rural England and she has published on economic development, the land market, popular rebellion, servants, and women's work.

Griffiths, Elizabeth
Dr Elizabeth Griffiths graduated from the University of East Anglia in 1987. After a teaching career, she was appointed a Research Fellow at Exeter University in 2003 to work with Dr Jane Whittle on Lady Alice Le Strange. This was followed by a further Research Project with Prof. Mark Overton on Sharefarming in England. Her main interests lie in all aspects of early modern farming and estate management, particularly the role of women.