Tracing a host of important and exciting topics relating to consumption, this book describes and analyzes the rise of mass fashion dress, changing fashions in clothing, the transcultural significance of tulip consumption, the rise of print advertising, the use of food as a marker of elite status, and the emergence of photographs as a consumer commodity. The emphasis on consumption rather than production offers new perspectives on the Ottoman and Middle East past, and by extension that of East and Southeast Asia as well as Africa. Also included are chapters that offer guidance in the use of archival sources for research in consumption history and a methodological overview of the utility of consumption studies for Ottoman and Middle East history.

Donald Quataert is Professor of History, Binghamton University. He has written many books, including Syria: Its Society, History, and Culture (coedited with Richard Antoun), also published by SUNY Press, and Ottoman Empire: Society and Economy 1300-1914 (coedited with Halil Inalcik).