Victims of Fashion: Animal Commodities in Victorian Britain by Helen Louise Cowie

Abstract

consumer culture. Kwass might have elaborated more about the interrelationships to which he alludes between consumption, enlightenment, revolution, and the shaping of desires. Consumer behavior as a historical agent is not an easy topic for academic analysis, perhaps because it seems so obvious to us.We are all consumers, and we all have doubts and anxieties about our consumption choices. Indeed, consumption is the locus of everyday politics for most people today. Kwass is correct to claim that a historical analysis of how modern consumer society emerged is essential to understanding the options that now stand before us. Unfortunately, two distinct strands of analysis are essayed in this volume without being brought to satisfactory conclusions.