A new book by a Brown professor that examines the Victorian roots of modern consumerism in Britain has received glowing reviews from British newspapers and was named Book of the Week by the magazine Time Out London on Oct. 30.
Associate Professor of History Deborah Cohen's "Household Gods: The British and their Possessions" was published this fall by Yale University Press.
Between 1830 and 1945, the period the book examines, consumerism went from being perceived as a sin to a "chief means of self-expression," Cohen said.
"Victorian men were absolutely obsessed with the details of décor," Cohen said. "Clergymen got so involved with what their flock was wearing." These were among the many discoveries Cohen made while doing research for the book.
In a Sept. 16 review of "Household Gods," Ben Macintyre wrote in the London Times, "So much of what Cohen identifies in her insightful survey of Victorian and Edwardian consumerism seems to reflect upon our own age: the urge to individuality vying with the desire for conformity, the energy and snobbery, the confusion of art and mere display."
Cohen said she has been pleased with reviews of the book so far and has been happy to see that people have latched onto "the point about old moral roots" of consumerism. "The piece most interesting to historians is also most interesting to the general reader, which often doesn't happen," she said.
Cohen said she felt compelled to write "Household Gods" because "studies on the 20th century are usually about poverty and needing. But during this time, Britain became the richest nation in Europe."
"We needed a history of abundance in addition to a history of poverty," she added.
Cohen was also interested in "the way in which taste serves to confound class distinctions." She gave the example of her grandmother, a Russian immigrant who married at age 16 and never finished high school but was an avid collector of 18th-century objects. "Through her things, she became middle-class before she was," Cohen said.
"People usually write about the taste-makers, like John Ruskin and William Morris," she said, but looking at a photograph of any middle-class British living room in the 19th century makes it clear that "their precepts weren't observed at all." Instead, Cohen wanted her book to focus on "looking outside the sphere of the famous, looking instead at lived consumer behaviors."
Research for the book was challenging because it was a topic that "could be researched everywhere but also nowhere in particular," Cohen said. It was "like a scavenger hunt" that led her to sift through provincial archives, family photo albums and personal correspondence.
One of Cohen's colleagues and a former student give her glowing reviews.
In an e-mail to The Herald, Professor of History James McClain, who is chair of the department, called Cohen "one of those rare scholars who ... contributes to the knowledge demanded by a specialist readership of fellow scholars, yet presents her arguments in ways that are completely accessible to the non-specialist as well."
"She has a particular knack for harnessing the creativity and passion of students and making them feel challenged without feeling overwhelmed," wrote Linda Evarts '06, a former student of Cohen's, in an e-mail to The Herald. "She is also one of the most caring and giving individuals I've ever encountered."
Cohen's first book, "The War Come Home: Disabled Veterans in Britain and Germany, 1914-1939," was published in November 2001 and awarded the Allan Sharlin Memorial Award by the Social Science History Association. In 2004, she co-edited "Comparison and History: Europe in Cross-National and Comparative Perspective."
Cohen said she plans to devote her energies next to a history of family secrets, examining the way "things that used to be shameful are now openly discussed. ... Secrets families used to keep are now spilling out into the open."
Cohen came to Brown in 2002 after a stint as an assistant professor of history at American University in Washington, D.C. She received her bachelor's degree from Harvard-Radcliffe College in 1990 and her Ph.D. from Berkeley in 1996.
"I love Brown," she said. "The history department at the moment is an exciting place to be, with all the new hires and new courses."
