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A Cultural History of Shopping in the Middle Ages

A Cultural History of Shopping in the Middle Ages

Paperback

Series: Cultural Histories

Business GeneralManagementGeneral World History

ISBN10: 1350650102
ISBN13: 9781350650107
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: Aug 20 2026
Pages: 256
Weight: 1.00
Height: 1.00 Width: 6.65 Depth: 9.61
Language: English

A Cultural History of Shopping was a Library Journal Best in Reference selection for 2022.

Covering the period from 500 BCE to 500 CE, this is the first book to address the cultural history of shoppers and shopping in antiquity.
Evidence for the existence of shops has been found across many archaeological sites in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East but the study of shops and retailing in antiquity is a relatively new subject. From Classical Greece through to the Late Roman Empire, shopping shifted from being a means to an end - a method of supplementing the family diet or providing material goods the household could not manufacture itself - to a form of experience where the processes of browsing and not purchasing became as important as buying. This dramatic transformation is a reflection of the changing material desires of these societies and their perspectives on the ways in which the fulfilment of those desires could be achieved. Recurring themes in this interdisciplinary volume include the lives of 'ordinary' people; the relationship between gender and shopping; the contrast between Greece and Rome; the attitudes towards shopkeepers; the placing of shops in the cityscape; and the zoning of particular crafts and products.

Also from

Davis, James

Also in

General World History