Consumption and Economic Life in Modern Latin America

Commodities and global trade are central to the history of Latin America. As scholars have pointed out, the cultivation, extraction, and shipping of commodities produced in the Americas have been vital in deepening our knowledge of the scale of its global entanglements. While crucial for understandi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Otero-Cleves, Ana María (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2025
In: History compass
Year: 2025, Volume: 23, Issue: 4/6, Pages: 1-9
Further subjects:B Consumption
B Political Economy
B commodities
B Latin America
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:Commodities and global trade are central to the history of Latin America. As scholars have pointed out, the cultivation, extraction, and shipping of commodities produced in the Americas have been vital in deepening our knowledge of the scale of its global entanglements. While crucial for understanding the region's political, economic and cultural past, this approach has inadvertently overlooked the equally vital role of consumption. This article aims to cast light on how the studies on the history of consumption—histories of what people bought, owned, ate, wore, and discarded—can provide greater insight into the region's cultural, political, and economic history from the 1820s until the mid-20th century. It prioritizes scholarship that recognizes Latin American consumers as active agents of historical change. The article also aims to show how the history of consumption can bridge various historiographical fields—including environmental history, the history of capitalism, labor history, and the history of race—to offer a richer and more comprehensive knowledge of Latin America's past.
ISSN:1478-0542
Contains:Enthalten in: History compass
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/hic3.70015