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.
A fascinating account of the trade patterns and consumption practices that arose following European colonisation of the Atlantic world.
Robert S. DuPlessis is Isaac H. Clothier Professor of History and International Relations Emeritus at the Department of History, Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania.
'DuPlessis examines the interconnection between commerce and
colonization in the Atlantic World, 1650–1800. More
specifically, he explains the ways in which clothing (wearing,
production, styles) offers a lens into the early modern Atlantic
World, providing fascinating insights into global consumption,
commerce, and integration during that time and place. His
exhaustive research includes missionary and official records;
postmortem inventories; visual images (woodcuts, paintings, etc.),
which provide excellent fuel for an in-depth examination of
modernity (and its place in Atlantic World history); and the role
of trade and consumption in shaping society and social norms … This
sweeping text proves once more how a single item - in this case,
textiles - can serve as an important lens into a wider society,
adding vitality and clarity to the past. The book is beautifully
done; numerous images add much to the text. This in-depth study is
a must for those interested in consumption, commerce, and the
textile industry. Summing up: essential.' J. Rankin, Choice
'The Material Atlantic is an ambitious, wide-ranging, and
methodologically original book … In its use of things to understand
Europe's colonial encounters, it offers a compelling justification
for what has been labeled the 'material turn' in historical
scholarship. At the same time, it transforms our understanding of
early modern Europe's engagement, both economic and cultural, with
the Atlantic as a whole, from the Cape of Good Hope to Hudson's
Bay.' John Styles, William and Mary Quarterly
'This is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in
transnational dimensions of life in the early modern Atlantic
World.' Christopher Magra, Journal of World History
'A singular study of the patterns, uses, and mores of dress in the
Atlantic world of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries …
the author makes a deeply convincing case for treating material
culture and sartorial matters as inextricable parts of the social,
economic, and cultural history of the Atlantic.' Tamara Walker,
William and Mary Quarterly
'This wonderfully comprehensive book uses an impressive variety of
quantitative and narrative sources, including written texts and
pictorial images, to illuminate the connections between producers
and consumers in West and West Central Africa; the Cape Colony;
British, French , Spanish and Portuguese America; and western
Europe and England.' Joan Bristol, Journal of Social History
'Robert DuPlessis, in his book The Material Atlantic, examines the
circulation of clothing across a wide range of socioeconomic
environments scattered throughout the Atlantic world. … DuPlessis
paints a highly detailed picture of dress in the early modern
Atlantic. He includes a number of helpful images and color prints
to illustrate some of these points. … Overall, DuPlessis provides a
richly detailed analysis of dress regimes in the Atlantic World,
one that covers immigrants and natives, rich and poor, merchants
and workers, women and men.' Michael R. Lynn, The Sixteenth Century
Journal
'Clothing was at the core of these diverse economic and
socio-cultural phenomena. The Material Atlantic is primarily about
these commercial patterns, their acquisition and uses. … This
engaging and profoundly documented account alters and extends the
existing scholarship on globalization in the early modern period,
the Atlantic world, and consumption. … This wide-ranging history is
invaluable to world and socio-cultural historians and their
students respectively.' Adel Manai, African Studies Quarterly
'The Material Atlantic is admirable. Very few books have succeeded
in fulfilling the promises and escaping the potential flaws of
Atlantic history to the extent this one does. … It is also both a
global and situated history of the Atlantic world … The fact that
the book should stimulate more research on material culture in the
early Atlantic world is a tribute to its great accomplishment.'
Cecile Vidal, H-France
'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
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