Review: Buying into the World of Goods: Early Consumers in Backcountry Virginia, by Ann Smart Martin.

Ann Smart Martin examines two counties in backcountry Virginia, part of the “shifting edge” of the British Empire in the eighteenth century. She asks how and why the residents of those counties bought into the world of consumer goods. In answering the how, Martin builds on works by Jacob Price, Carole Shammas, and others who have shown that by the late eighteenth century, the manufacture and distribution of goods in the Atlantic world had become sophisticated and competitive. To answer the more difficult question—why did particular individuals buy, make, and use particular goods?—Martin relies on the techniques of material culture studies, which she herself has done much to advance. But—and this is no reflection on her skills—she is only partially successful at delivering answers.