A Cultural History of Objects in the Age of Enlightenment covers the period 1600 to 1760, a time marked by the movement of people, ideas and goods. The objects explored in this volume -from scientific instrumentation and Baroque paintings to slave ships and shackles -encapsulate the contradictory impulses of the age. The entwined forces of capitalism and colonialism created new patterns of consumption, facilitated by innovations in maritime transport, new forms of exchange relations, and the exploitation of non-Western peoples and lands. The world of objects in the Enlightenment reveal a Western material culture profoundly shaped by global encounters.

The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Objects examines how objects have been created, used, interpreted and set loose in the world over the last 2500 years. Over this time, the West has developed particular attitudes to the material world, at the centre of which is the idea of the object. The themes covered in each volume are objecthood; technology; economic objects; everyday objects; art; architecture; bodily objects; object worlds.

Audrey Horning is Professor at William & Mary, USA, and at Queen's University Belfast, UK.
Volume 4 in the Cultural History of Objects set.
General Editors: Dan Hicks and William Whyte

Audrey Horning is Forrest D. Murden Professor of Anthropology, William & Mary and Professor of Archaeology, Queen's University Belfast. Her books include Becoming and Belonging in Ireland (co-edited with Eve Campbell and Elizabeth Fitzpatrick; University of Cork Press 2018); Ireland in the Virginia Sea: Colonialism in the British Atlantic (Omohundro Institute/ University of North Carolina 2013); Crossing Paths or Sharing Tracks? Future Directions in the Archaeological Study of post-1550 Britain and Ireland (co-edited with Marilyn Palmer; Boydell and Brewer 2009); Ireland and Britain in the Atlantic (co-edited with Nick Brannon; Wordwell, Dublin 2009); The Post Medieval Archaeology of Ireland 1550-1850 (co-edited with Ruairí Ó Boaill, Colm Donnelly and Paul Logue; Wordwell, Dublin 2007).