The Material Atlantic
Clothing, Commerce, and Colonization in the Atlantic World, 1650–1800

A fascinating account of the trade patterns and consumption practices that arose following European colonisation of the Atlantic world.

Robert S. DuPlessis (Author)

9781107105911, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 October 2015

367 pages, 15 b/w illus. 16 colour illus. 6 maps 9 tables
23.7 x 16.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.78 kg

'This is a fascinating book and a major accomplishment: although dress is universal (even though some Europeans did not always see Amerindian and African styles as dress), it is often overlooked in historical studies. By bringing cloth and clothing to the fore, DuPlessis has given us a new and remarkable understanding of the Atlantic World and the many groups of people who shaped it.' Joan Bristol, Journal of Social History

In this wide-ranging account, Robert DuPlessis examines globally sourced textiles that by dramatically altering consumer behaviour, helped create new economies and societies in the early modern world. This deeply researched history of cloth and clothing offers new insights into trade patterns, consumer demand and sartorial cultures that emerged across the Atlantic world between the mid-seventeenth and late-eighteenth centuries. As a result of European settlement and the construction of commercial networks stretching across much of the planet, men and women across a wide spectrum of ethnicities, social standings and occupations fashioned their garments from materials old and new, familiar and strange, and novel meanings came to be attached to different fabrics and modes of dress. The Material Atlantic illuminates crucial developments that characterised early modernity, from colonialism and slavery to economic innovation and new forms of social identity.

Introduction: fashioning the Atlantic world
1. Dress regimes at the dawn of the shared Atlantic
2. Acquiring imported textiles and dress
3. Redressing the indigenous Americas
4. Dress under constraint
5. Dressing free settlers in the 'torrid zone'
6. Free settler dress in temperate zones
7. Atlantic dress regimes: fashions and meanings, implications and ironies
Appendices
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], General & world history [HBG]