Revolutionary Things: Material Culture and Politics in the Late Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World

Ashli White's book explores the circulation of material culture during the American, French, and Haitian revolutions, arguing that objects played a crucial role in expressing and contesting revolutionary ideals. She demonstrates how revolutionary things, such as ceramics, furniture, garments, prints, maps, and public amusements, brought people into contact with these movements in visceral and meaningful ways, impacting enslaved and free, women and men, poor and elite.

Format: Hardback
Length: 392 pages
Publication date: 11 July 2023
Publisher: Yale University Press

Through her analysis,White reveals the complex ways in which objects were used to express and contest revolutionary ideals. She demonstrates how objects could be manipulated to support or undermine specific political agendas,how they could be used to create and sustain networks of resistance and collaboration,and how they could be transformed by the very processes of circulation and consumption.

Objects of Love and Regret is a groundbreaking work that offers a fresh perspective on the role of material culture in the Age of Revolutions. By excavating the power of material objects and visual images to express the fervor and fear of the revolutionary era,Ashli White brings us closer to more fully embodied,more fully human,figures.

In this important,innovative book,Ashli White moves nimbly between North America,Europe,and the Caribbean to capture the richness and complexity of material culture in the Age of Revolutions. 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.

Through her analysis,White reveals the complex ways in which objects were used to express and contest revolutionary ideals. She demonstrates how objects could be manipulated to support or undermine specific political agendas,how they could be used to create and sustain networks of resistance and collaboration,and how they could be transformed by the very processes of circulation and consumption.

Objects of Love and Regret is a groundbreaking work that offers a fresh perspective on the role of material culture in the Age of Revolutions. By excavating the power of material objects and visual images to express the fervor and fear of the revolutionary era,Ashli White brings us closer to more fully embodied,more fully human,figures.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780300259018