Victorians & Numbers: Statistics and Society in Nineteenth-Century Britain

as the British bourgeoisie, while additionally claiming that champagne and its bourgeois consumers (especially the haute ones) were essential to French national identity. I would have liked to see more of this comparison in a stand-alone chapter, perhaps at the end, thereby highlighting the differences and similarities of the meaning of champagne in Britain and France, arguably the two most culturally powerful nations in the world during the period 1870–1914. That said, if you enjoy champagne or are interested in the historical development of modern marketing and branding techniques, this book is a must read, as necessary as it is for a champagne afficionado to taste Krug, Crystal, or Dom Perignon, at least once, to see if they are worth the hype.