This book reinterprets the rise of consumerism in terms of interaction between Europe and China 1400-1800.

A novel approach to Chinese history is adopted here, in that the theme of the book is China's relations with the non-Chinese world, not only political and economic, but cultural, social and technological as well.

How were their hand-produced books illustrated and decorated? In this beautiful book Jonathan Alexander presents a survey of manuscript illumination throughout Europe from the fourth to the sixteenth century.

Michael Camille explores that riotous realm of marginal art, so often explained away as mere decoration or zany doodles, where resistance to social constraints flourished.

It has been an object of almost universal consumption since Neolithic times. This book sets out to place the particular histories of salt in a global perspective and write the history of a human commodity as a theme in world history.

An introduction to 15th century Italian painting and the social history behind it, arguing that the two are interlinked and that the conditions of the time helped fashion distinctive elements in the painter's style.

Explores the cultural framework within which changes in agricultural technology and economic organization occur and the ways in which changes in the social fabric influence attitudes toward rural work and the peasantry.

A former public relations consultant for Michael Jackson describes the singer's life and music career.

A consideration of medieval work is therefore one of medieval society in all its creativity and complexity and that is precisely what this volume provides.