In Spanish Books in the Europe of the Enlightenment (Paris and London) Nicolás Bas examines the image of Spain in eighteenth-century Europe, and in Paris and London in particular. His material has been scoured from an exhaustive interrogation of the records of the book trade. He refers to booksellers’ catalogues, private collections, auctions, and other sources of information in order to reconstruct the country’s cultural image. Rarely have these sources been searched for Spanish books, and never have they been as exhaustively exploited as they are in Bas’ book. Both England and France were conversant with some very negative ideas about Spain. The Black Legend, dating back to the sixteenth century, condemned Spain as repressive and priest-ridden. Bas shows however, that an alternative, more sympathetic, vision ran parallel with these negative views. His bibliographical approach brings to light the Spanish books that were bought, sold and ultimately read. The impression thus obtained is likely to help us understand not only Spain’s past, but also something of its present.

This collection of fourteen essays highlights both the singularity of personal reading experiences and the cultural conventions involved in reading and its perception.

"This book is a comprehensive study of English and American consumers and consumption before industrialization and mass urbanization. Shammas examines the changes in what rural households bought on the market and what they produced themselves. She charts the incredible growth in what contemporaries called groceries--tobacco, sugar, and caffeine drinks--and in semi-durables--lighter textiles, pottery, glassware, and paper products--and discusses the effects of this growth on diet and domestic environment. She also considers the process whereby the new goods got distributed. The sudden proliferation of shops and their relationship to market towns and peddling is also treated in depth. The comparison between England and America is of particular interest because the two were inextricably linked by trade and culture, yet their material situation, including land availability, population density, social structure, and natural resources differed greatly. Current notions about "consumer revolutions" and "consumer societies" are challenged and the author offers an alternative framework for evaluating changes in consumption patterns over time."--Publisher description.

During the Enlightenment, in a society that was increasingly urbanised and mobile, footwear was an essential item of apparel. This book considers not only the practical but also the symbolic meaning of footwear in France and England during the period from the end of the seventeenth to the mid nineteenth century.