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Free Trade Nation

Commerce, Consumption, and Civil Society in Modern Britain

Frank Trentmann (Professor of History, Birkbeck College, University of London)

$63.95

Hardback

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English
Oxford University Press
01 February 2008
Free Trade was one of Britain's defining contributions to the modern world. It united civil society and commerce, and gave birth to consumer power. In this book, Frank Trentmann shows how Free Trade contributed to the growth of democratic culture in Britain - and how it fell apart.

Far from the cold economic doctrine of today, in an earlier battle over globalization Free Trade was a passionately held ideal, central to public life and national identity. It inspired popular entertainment and advertising, in seaside resorts, shows, and high streets. It mobilized an alliance of elites and the people, businessmen and working-class women, imperialists and internationalists.

Free Trade Nation follows the creation of this culture in nineteenth-century Britain, and its subsequent unravelling in the First World War and the inter-war years, when many of its former supporters now attacked it for sacrificing international stability and domestic welfare at the temple of cheapness. These attacks brought to an end a seminal chapter in history.

The popular culture of Free Trade was never to return.

For anyone interested in the current problem of globalization, this book offers a vivid and thought-provoking perspective on the success and failure of Free Trade. For champions of trade liberalization, it is a reminder that culture, ethics, and popular communication matter just as much as sound economics. Believers in Fair Trade, by contrast, will be surprised to learn that in the past it was Free Trade, not Fair Trade, that stood for democracy, justice, and peace.
By:  
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 234mm,  Width: 156mm,  Spine: 39mm
Weight:   892g
ISBN:   9780199209200
ISBN 10:   0199209200
Pages:   464
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  A / AS level
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print

Frank Trentmann is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London, and Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. He has publised widely on modern economic history, most recently Beyond Sovereignty: Britain, Empire and Transnationalism (2007, with Kevin Grant and Philippa Levine) and Consuming Cultures, Global Perspectives (2006, with John Brewer).

Reviews for Free Trade Nation: Commerce, Consumption, and Civil Society in Modern Britain

Trentmann has not only added a great deal to our knowledge through painstaking research but has written about it with verve and energy and produced a most readable volume...[a] fine book. Peter J. Cain EH.NET Here we have 'a human history of Free Trade' that is at once a delight to read and a cause of profound intellectual stimulation. It graphically brings alive - with splendid colour reproductions of propaganda posters too - the popular passions and prejudices of a world that suddenly ended during the First World War...This is a book imbued with fine scholarship, but one that deserves a wide readership Peter Clarke, Times Literary Supplement [An] absorbing book History Today ...an inspired history...Trentmann's book unfolds a dramatic story...gripping Neue Zuercher Zeitung Thoughtful and well-researched. Christopher Harvie, The Independent [A] lucid history of free trade in Britain David Connett, Sunday Express This is terrific history that will inspire economists to remember their subject really can arouse passion. Evan Davis, BBC Economics Editor brilliant Sunday Telegraph [A] fascinating work Il Riformista ..paints a vivid picture of the ideological controversy over Free Trade that remains relevant to this day. Luxemburger Wort offers a fresh look at a chapter in British and world history, while at the same time providing a historical perspective on today's debate about globalisation, challenging the ways we have come to think about trade, justice and democracy. Society Now Free Trade Nation is history at its best: far-reaching and authoritative, its story of the rise and fall of free trade as a widely-held belief marked by justice, fairness, and peace provocatively refashions the history of early-twentieth-century Britain, reminds us of an age when popular politics exerted real power, and forces us to rethink our contemporary views of consumers, markets and morality. Professor John Brewer, California Institute of Technology a landmark in economic history and the history of ideas...offers a new perspective on the contemporary process of globalization...Free Trade Nation describes with sensitivity and erudition the ideological milieu that gave birth to a new liberalism sensitive to the dangers of unbridled capitalism gone mad, such as John A. Hobson and John M. Keynes...Globalization, Trentmann shows us, is not just the fruit of economic interaction. It is first and foremost the product of debate over ideas within civil society and politics. La Vie des Idees Frank Trentmann...has not only added a great deal to our knowledge through painstaking research but has written about it with verve and energy and produced a most readable volume. Reviews in Economic and Business History


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