Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First

"[A] sweepingly detailed history of humanity's passion for the possession of objects...[an] epic chronicle." —Wall Street Journal

What we consume has become a central—perhaps the central—feature of modern life. Our economies live or die by spending, we increasingly define ourselves by our possessions, and this ever-richer lifestyle has had an extraordinary impact on our planet. How have we come to live with so much stuff, and how has this changed the course of history?

In Empire of Thi...