Material Women, 1750?950: Consuming Desires and Collecting Practices

This volume explores the relationship between women and possessions over the period from 1750-1950. The articles are by scholars from English, history and art history. Goggin and Tobin, both in English at Arizona State University, began this series on women and material culture in a seminar they taught. The topic is divided into four parts. The first is the desire for things. The second addresses the ways in which home furnishing and appliances helped form middle class tastes, primarily in Europe and America. The ways in which women used dress to express political opinions includes examples from Napoleonic France, India under the Raj, China in the 1930s and Senegal in the 1940s after women there received the right to vote. The final section investigates the ways in which women used collecting as a means to enter into areas of society from which they were normally excluded. The parallels found across time and cultures make this collection one that will interest historians and sociologists. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Maureen Daly Goggin is Associate Chair in the Department of English at Arizona State University, USA. Beth Fowkes Tobin is Professor of English and Women's Studies at the University of Georgia, USA.