Revolutionary Things

“By excavating the power of material objects and visual images to express the fervor and fear of the revolutionary era, Ashli White brings us closer to more fully embodied, more fully human, figures.”—Richard Rabinowitz, author of Objects of Love and Regret: A Brooklyn Story

“In this important, innovative book, Ashli White moves nimbly between North America, Europe, and the Caribbean to capture the richness and complexity of material culture in the Age of Revolutions.”—Michael Kwass, Johns Hopkins University

“Envisioning revolution as the turning of a wheel—a cycling and circulating material thing—rather than as a new beginning offers fresh insights into how times of massive transformation can encompass enduring ways of life. White’s vivid and deeply researched account of the Atlantic Age of Revolutions takes its shape from the contested meanings of objects made, disseminated, and used in ways that show how even the most successful revolts against empires could still leave people firmly within their orbit.”—Vincent Brown, author of Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War

“By focusing not on inspirational texts but on the circulation of the material culture of everyday life, Ashli White’s exciting and deeply-researched study makes the Age of Revolutions look all the more intriguing.”—Colin Jones, author of The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon