Disclosure : This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

Shopping for Pleasure – The Making of London`s West End

In “Shopping for Pleasure”, Erika Rappaport reconstructs London`s Victorian and Edwardian West End as an entertainment and retail center. In this neighborhood of stately homes, royal palaces, and spacious parks and squares, a dramatic transformation unfolded that ultimately changed the meaning of femininity and the lives of women, shaping their experience of modernity. Rappaport illuminates the various forces of the period that encouraged and discouraged women`s enjoyment of public life and particularly shows how shopping came to be seen as the quintessential leisure activity for middle- and upper-class women. Through extensive histories of department stores, women`s magazines, clubs, teashops, restaurants, and the theater as interwoven sites of consumption, “Shopping for Pleasure” uncovers how a new female urban culture emerged before and after the turn of the twentieth century. Moving beyond the question of whether shopping promoted or limited women`s freedom, the author draws on diverse sources to explore how business practices, legal decisions, and cultural changes affected women in the market.In particular, she focuses on how and why stores presented themselves as pleasurable, secure places for the urban woman, in some cases defining themselves as instrumental to civic improvement and women`s emancipation. Rappaport also considers such influences as merchandizing strategies, credit policies, changes in public transportation, feminism, and the financial balance of power within the home. “Shopping for Pleasure” is thus both a social and cultural history of the West End, but on a broader scale it reveals the essential interplay between the rise of consumer society, the birth of modern femininity, and the making of contemporary London.

Related Products:

Piccadilly: London`s West End and the Pursuit of Pleasure Georgian London: the West End London (3): North West London Pevsner Architectural Guide London National Park City – South West Quarter Urban Nature Map London National Park City – North West Quarter Urban Nature Map London West End A-Z Mini Map A-Z London Master Map – West A-Z London Master Map – South West London: A Social and Cultural History, 1550-750 Women`s London: A Tour Guide to Great Lives London`s West End Cinemas A Woman Lived Here: Alternative Blue Plaques, Remembering London`s Remarkable Women Shopping , Seduction and Mr Selfridge Booth`s Maps of London Poverty: East & West 1889 Sherlock Holmes`s London: Discover the City from the West End to Wapping London Collins Pocket Map London A-Z Handy Map A Visitor`s Guide to Shakespeare`s London London West, Rickmansworth & Staines OS Landranger Map 176 (paper) London West, Rickmansworth & Staines OS Landranger Active Map 176 (waterproof) Handel in London: The Making of a Genius Rambling for Pleasure in East Berkshire London`s Secret Walks: 25 Walks Around London`s Most Historic Districts The Ashes of London The West Country Happiness by Design: Finding Pleasure and Purpose in Everyday Life Window Shopping Through the Iron Curtain London National Park City – Greater London Area Urban Nature Map London Bensons MapGuides Street Map Greater London Collins Street Atlas London – A Cultural & Literary History London North: The City, West End, Enfield, Ealing, Harrow & Watford OS Explorer Active Map 173 (waterproof) Pleasure London Red Maps West End Front: : The Wartime Secrets of London`s Grand Hotels In Youth is Pleasure Shopping List Grand Union Canal: Milton Keynes to London, with the London & East London Rings Heron Map Map of London Bensons MapGuides London Walks: London Stories