Free Trade Nation

consumers, markets and morality. Professor John Brewer, California Institute of Technology Absorbing History Today a fascinating book, wide ranging, detailed, well organized, and written in an engaging style American Historical Review Frank Trentmann's book will be the point of departure for any future scholarship on free trade... It is a ground-breaking study European Review of History ...original and thought provoking...Trentmann's reconstruction of consumer politics is both persuasive and authoritative History ...this impressive study...shows how liberalism turned into social democracy and how the arguments for and against Free Trade both shaped national life and embodied current views regarding man, government and society. After this book, no study of Victorian liberalism can be conducted in quite the same way. Contemporary Review In writing Free Trade Nation, Trentmann set out to tell the personal histories of free trade and also to write a new political history. He succeeds admirably on both accounts...Free Trade Nation should be read by anyone interested in the history of modern Britain. British Scholar, 'Book of the Month' (December 2008) ...a major scholarly work [that] forces the reader to grapple with basic questions relating economics to politics, consumption to democracy, and offers the tools for doing so in a comparative, global frame...deserves to be read as much by citizens...as by scholars... Trentmann offers an important contribution, both to the history of Great Britain and to political history more generally. Journal of Consumer Policy immensely ambitious...an important and exciting book, whose arguments will need to be seriously addressed and assessed by students of both economic and political history. Economic History Review a brilliant book...rich and multi-faceted...full of unexpected insights...Not only a product of wonderful scholarship but also great fun... It is essential reading for anyone interested in the development of modern Britain. English Historical Review [a] brilliant achievement Judges' citation for the Whitfield Prize of the Royal Historical Society an important contribution to the cultural and social history of economic controversies. Revue d'histoire du XIX siecle Trentmann has written an excellent book, extensively and meticulously researched, thoughtful, nuanced, and eloquent...a book of enduring importance Journal of British Studies the novelty of this account lies in its pioneering attempt to turn the attention of political historians away from elections and parties towards an understanding of consumption and citizenship as central to the nature of political culture ...carefully constructed, engagingly written, finely illustrated, and suitably well-marketed. H-Albion