Leora Auslander
Taste and Power
Furnishing Modern France
$29.95, £20.95 paperback
9780520213654
Available Now
Louis XIV, regency, rococo, neoclassical, empire, art nouveau, and historicist pastiche: furniture styles march across French history as regimes rise and fall. In this extraordinary social history, Leora Auslander explores the changing meaning of furniture from the mid-seventeenth to the early twentieth century, revealing how the aesthetics of everyday life were as integral to political events as to economic and social transformations. Enriched by Auslander's experience as a cabinetmaker, this work demonstrates how furniture served to represent and even generate its makers' and consumers' identities.
"A fresh and fascinating history of France from the middle of the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th, seen from the unusual perspective of a single commodity: furniture."—Stanley Abercrombie, Interior Design
"A fascinating study of the relationship among furniture, taste, and power structures in France . . . particularly Auslander's analysis of the evolution of a feminine public sphere oriented around the politics of domestic space and social power."—M. T. Scholz, Choice
"Auslander . . . repeatedly brings out the deep implications of the seemingly trivial and gendered choices that ordinary mortals unthinkingly make from day to day."—Patrice Higonnet, Times Literary Supplement
"Through the rise and fall of regimes Auslander explores the changing meaning of furniture in France from the mid 17th to the early 20th century. She analyzes furniture makers, sellers, buyers, and arbiters to reveal how the aesthetics of everyday life intersected with political events, and economic and social transformations."—Book News
"This book offers a fresh and fascinating history of France from the middle of the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th, seen from the unusual perspective of a single commodity: furniture."—Stanley Abercrombie, Interior Design
"A fascinating study of the relationship among furniture, taste, and power structures in France . . . particularly Auslander's analysis of the evolution of a feminine public sphere oriented around the politics of domestic space and social power."—M. T. Scholz, Choice
"Auslander . . . repeatedly brings out the deep implications of the seemingly trivial and gendered choices that ordinary mortals unthinkingly make from day to day."—Patrice Higonnet, Times Literary Supplement
"Through the rise and fall of regimes Auslander explores the changing meaning of furniture in France from the mid 17th to the early 20th century. She analyzes furniture makers, sellers, buyers, and arbiters to reveal how the aesthetics of everyday life intersected with political events, and economic and social transformations."—Book News
"This book offers a fresh and fascinating history of France from the middle of the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th, seen from the unusual perspective of a single commodity: furniture."—Stanley Abercrombie, Interior Design
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