Historians and Material Culture

Have a look at this book review - seems that historians are starting to engage with material culture at last! There is hope.

http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/901

Comments

Dr J said…
Having read that book, I can say that it is about material culture, but it isn't a material culture approach. Vickery's husband, John Styles, does a better job using material culture of this period in his work, although they both generally depend rather unquestioningly on written sources and look only for illustration purposes (literally - for the pretty pictures in the colour plates in the middle of the book) to surviving objects. Even if they refer to (shock! horror!) visual material such as the plethora of 18th century caricatures, they do so without talking about any methodology for doing so and demonstrate no real understanding of the distinctive nature of this type of source.

But, even that is something, I guess...
Jenny said…
Things will improve - trust me :)

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