Franse consumptiepolitiek in het revolutionaire tijdperk: praktijken, actoren en vertogen

Abstract

This review article presents the state of the art in the field of consumption history pointing at further research possibilities investigating the political embedding of consumption in nineteenth-century France. Sketching existing blind spots and the current difficulties to transgress the disciplinary boundaries between political history and the history of consumption, the article proposes a new approach and methodology for reconstructing how political debates have shaped commercial parlour at the dawn of the modern era. By breaking with linear presumptions that consumption became dissociated from politics in the nineteenth century and exploring the neglected role of the political in framing French consumer society, the research agenda outlined in this review article seeks to contribute to a more comprehensive historical understanding of crucial processes of modernization and commercialization.