This book is an innovative collection of essays by a new generation of British and American historians and political theorists. The volume explores how critical traditions and beliefs have helped to shape capitalism. Chapters follow diverse critiques in Britain and America and explore their Atlantic and imperial exchanges. The volume includes chapters on questions of law and property in the Victorian empire; traditions of land reform in 19th century America and Britain; the influence of American romanticism on British socialism; the role of Britain in American progressivism; American and British consumer protection; the evolution of trusteeship and ideas of cosmopolitan democracy; the 'third way' and narratives of globalization.

This is the first book to bring together a focus on governance with that on cultures of consumption. It asks about the changing place of the consumer as citizen in recent trends in governance, about the tensions between competing ideas and practices of consumerism, and about the active role of consumers in the construction of governance. The book seeks to expand the debate about consumers and governance and to raise the possibility of new conceptions and policy agendas.

This is the first book to focus on governance and cultures of consumption, expanding the debate and raising new conceptions and policy agendas. It questions the changing place of the consumer as citizen in recent trends in governance, the tensions between competing ideas and practices of consumerism, and the active role of consumers in governance.

This book is an innovative collection of essays by a new generation of British and American historians and political theorists. Moving beyond a conventional action/reaction view of capitalism and its critics, the volume explores how critical traditions and beliefs have helped to shape capitalism. Chapters follow diverse critiques in Britain and America and explore their Atlantic and imperial exchanges. The volume includes chapters on questions of law and property in the Victorian empire; traditions of land reform in nineteenth century America and Britain; the influence of American romanticism on British socialism; the role of Britain in American progressivism; American and British consumer protection; the evolution of trusteeship and ideas of cosmopolitan democracy; the 'third way' and narratives of globalization. The editors' introduction offers a critical historiographical survey and, by stepping beyond the dogmatic opposition between post-modernists and empiricists, provides a new research agenda for an integrated study of capitalism and its critics.