Purchasing Identity in the Atlantic World 
Subtitle: Massachusetts Merchants, 1670 1780
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: July 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 421
ISBN-13: 9780801438554
Subjects: American history: c 1500 to c 1800; American history: c 1800 to c 1900; Consumer issues; History of ideas, intellectual history; United States - State & Local - General; Merchants; History - U.S; History; United States - General; History: American; Northeastern & North Atlantic states; Social History; United States - Colonial Period; Commerce; Consumption (Economics); Economic conditions; Europe; Massachusetts; Social aspects
Description: "Americans have always had a love-hate relationship with possessions. Early Americans suspected luxuries as a corrupting force that would lead to an aristocracy. In Purchasing Identity in the Atlantic World, Phyllis Whitman Hunter demonstrates how elite Americans not only became infatuated with their belongings, but also avidly pursued consumption to shape their world and proclaim their success."--BOOK JACKET.