Mahogany : The Costs of Luxury in Early America / Jennifer L. Anderson.
2012
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Title
Mahogany : The Costs of Luxury in Early America / Jennifer L. Anderson.
ISBN
9780674067264
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2012]
Copyright
©2012
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (340 p.) : 11 color illustrations, 19 halftones, 2 maps
Other Standard Identifiers
10.4159/harvard.9780674067264 doi
Dewey Decimal Classification
338.47674142
Summary
In the mid-eighteenth century, colonial Americans became enamored with the rich colors and silky surface of mahogany. This exotic wood, imported from the West Indies and Central America, quickly displaced local furniture woods as the height of fashion. Over the next century, consumer demand for mahogany set in motion elaborate schemes to secure the trees and transform their rough-hewn logs into exquisite objects. But beneath the polished gleam of this furniture lies a darker, hidden story of human and environmental exploitation. Mahogany traces the path of this wood through many hands, from source to sale: from the enslaved African woodcutters, including skilled "huntsmen" who located the elusive trees amidst dense rainforest, to the ship captains, merchants, and timber dealers who scrambled after the best logs, to the skilled cabinetmakers who crafted the wood, and with it the tastes and aspirations of their diverse clientele. As the trees became scarce, however, the search for new sources led to expanded slave labor, vicious competition, and intense international conflicts over this diminishing natural resource. When nineteenth-century American furniture makers turned to other materials, surviving mahogany objects were revalued as antiques evocative of the nation's past. Jennifer Anderson offers a dynamic portrait of the many players, locales, and motivations that drove the voracious quest for mahogany to adorn American parlors and dining rooms. This complex story reveals the cultural, economic, and environmental costs of America's growing self-confidence and prosperity, and how desire shaped not just people's lives but the natural world.
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Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 15. Sep 2020)
In
E-BOOK GESAMTPAKET / COMPLETE PACKAGE 2012
E-BOOK PACKAGE HISTORY; POLITICAL SCIENCE, SOCIOLOGY 2012
E-BOOK PAKET GESCHICHTE, POLITIKWISS., SOZIOLOGIE 2012
HUP eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
E-BOOK PACKAGE HISTORY; POLITICAL SCIENCE, SOCIOLOGY 2012
E-BOOK PAKET GESCHICHTE, POLITIKWISS., SOZIOLOGIE 2012
HUP eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
Illustrations
Introduction
Chapter One. A New Species of Elegance
Chapter Two. The Gold Standard of Jamaican Mahogany
Chapter Three. Supplying the Empire with Mahogany
Chapter Four. The Bitters and the Sweets of Trade
Chapter Five. Slavery in the Rain Forest
Chapter Six. Redefining Mahogany in the Early Republic
Chapter Seven. Mastering Nature and the Challenge of Mahogany
Chapter Eight. Democratizing Mahogany and the Advent of Steam
Chapter Nine. An Old Species of Elegance
Abbreviations
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
Contents
Illustrations
Introduction
Chapter One. A New Species of Elegance
Chapter Two. The Gold Standard of Jamaican Mahogany
Chapter Three. Supplying the Empire with Mahogany
Chapter Four. The Bitters and the Sweets of Trade
Chapter Five. Slavery in the Rain Forest
Chapter Six. Redefining Mahogany in the Early Republic
Chapter Seven. Mastering Nature and the Challenge of Mahogany
Chapter Eight. Democratizing Mahogany and the Advent of Steam
Chapter Nine. An Old Species of Elegance
Abbreviations
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index