Early Modern Things: Objects and Their Histories, 1500-1800

Findlen, Paula. Early Modern Things: Objects and Their Histories, 1500-1800. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2013. Print.

In my search I found Early Modern Things: Objects and Their Histories, 1500-1800. To find this book I searched for results using keywords “empires”, “religion”, and “early modern”. This search yielded me way to many results, so I proceeded to add “difference” to my search on the terms that difference has been one of the most common themes that we have examined thus far. After this search, I was immediately drawn to this book. Comparable to the 100 objects, this book discusses early modern life through material culture. Early Modern Things, is a collection of 17 essays, which explore what we can learn about the early modern world by studying its objects and their meanings. Another emphasis of the book is investigating how these things and their significance changed over time as well as from culture to culture. An object can be viewed differently at different points in its’ existence and this book discusses how this can change the object’s purpose, and significance. In comparison to the 100 objects, this book is much more broad in its analysis of things. For example, one section of the book studies the effect and meaning behind furniture in Georgian England, as opposed to examining one individual object. Overall, I think this book fits in well with out investigation of material culture in the early modern world.