Overview

How objects associated with the American, French, and Haitian revolutions drew diverse people throughout the Atlantic world into debates over revolutionary ideals   “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.”—Richard Rabinowitz, author of Objects of Love and Regret: A Brooklyn Story   “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.”—Michael Kwass, Johns Hopkins University   Ashli White analyzes the circulation of objects associated with the American, French, and Haitian revolutions, arguing that the ideals of the Atlantic revolutions were contested not just in texts but also through objects. She considers how, as revolutionary things traveled from one site in the Atlantic to another, they brought people into contact with these political movements in visceral, multiple, and provocative ways. Focusing on a wide range of objects with transnational reach—ceramics and furniture, garments and accessories, prints, maps, and public amusements—she draws out the political impact of material culture for diverse populations. Enslaved and free, women and men, poor, middling, and elite—all turned to objects as a means to realize their varied, and sometimes competing, visions of revolutionary change.

Full Product Details

9780300259018

Table of Contents

Reviews

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. -Richard Rabinowitz, author of Objects of Love and Regret: A Brooklyn Story 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. -Michael Kwass, Johns Hopkins University

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. -Richard Rabinowitz, author of Objects of Love and Regret: A Brooklyn Story 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. -Michael Kwass, Johns Hopkins University Envisioning revolution as the turning of a wheel-a cycling and circulating material thing-rather than as a new beginning offers fresh insights into how times of massive transformation can encompass enduring ways of life. White's vivid and deeply researched account of the Atlantic Age of Revolutions takes its shape from the contested meanings of objects made, disseminated, and used in ways that show how even the most successful revolts against empires could still leave people firmly within their orbit. -Vincent Brown, author of Tacky's Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War By focusing not on inspirational texts but on the circulation of the material culture of everyday life, Ashli White's exciting and deeply-researched study makes the Age of Revolutions look all the more intriguing. -Colin Jones, author of The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon

Author Information

Ashli White is associate professor of history at the University of Miami. She is the author of Encountering Revolution: Haiti and the Making of the Early Republic. She lives in Miami, FL.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available