Gifts and commodities

Three hundred years ago people made most of what they used, or got it in trade from their neighbours. Now, no one seems to make anything, and we buy what we need from shops. Gifts and Commodities describes the cultural and historical process of these changes and looks at the rise of consumer society in Britain and in the United States. It investigates the ways that people think about and relate to objects in twentieth-century culture, at how those relationships have developed, and at the social meanings they have for relations with others. The book analyses the distinctions between impersonal…