Anne Gerritsen is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Warwick. Her previous publications include Ji'an Literati and the Local in Song-Yuan-Ming China (2007).

Giorgio Riello is Professor in the Department of History at the University of Warwick. In addition to several edited collections, he is the author of A Foot in the Past (2006) and Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World (2013).

Introduction The Global Lives of Things: Material Culture in the First Global Age Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Riello PART I: OBJECTS OF GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE 1. Itineraries of Matter and Knowledge in the Early Modern World Pamela Smith 2. Towards a Global History of Shagreen Christine Guth 3. The Coral Network: The Trade of Red Coral to the Qing Imperial Court in the Eighteenth Century Pippa Lacey PART II: OBJECTS OF GLOBAL CONNECTIONS 4. Beyond the Kunstkammer: Brazilian Featherwork and the Northern European Court Festivals Mariana Françozo 5. The Empire in the Duke's Palace. Global Material Culture in Sixteenth-century Portugal Nuno Senos 6. Dishes, Coins and Pipes: The Epistemological and Emotional Power of VOC Material Culture in Australia Susan Broomhall 7. Encounters around the Material Object: French and Indian Consumers in Eighteenth-Century Pondicherry Kévin Le Doudic PART III: OBJECTS OF GLOBAL CONSUMPTION 8. Customs and Consumption: Russia's Global Tobacco Habits in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Matthew P. Romaniello 9. Sugar Revisited: Sweetness and the Environment in the Early Modern World Urmi Engineer 10. Coffee, Mind and Body: Global Material Culture and the Eighteenth-Century Hamburg Import Trade Christine Fertig and Ulrich Pfister Afterword - Paula Findlen Afterword - Suraiya Faroqhi Afterword - Maxine Berg

The Global Lives of Things considers the ways in which 'things', ranging from commodities, to works of art and precious materials, participated in the shaping of 'globalisation' in the early modern period. By focusing on the European encounters with the Americas and Australia, this volume traces the movements of objects through human networks of commerce, colonialism and curiosity. Divided into four parts, the volume considers, Objects of Global Encounters, Matter and Global Knowledge, New Consuming Habits and lastly Constructing Global Spaces.
This book will be essential reading for students of material culture and the early modern world.