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Courses / Modules / HIST2100 Retail Therapy: A journey through the cultural history of shopping

Retail Therapy: A journey through the cultural history of shopping

When you'll study it
Semester 1
CATS points
15
ECTS points
7.5
Level
Level 5
Module lead
Eleanor Quince
Academic year
2025-26

Module overview

We are all, in one way or another, participants in the consumer society. Whether we buy for necessity - life essentials such as food - or view it as an enjoyable leisure activity, our purchase of goods is part of a wider cultural movement pushing us to ‘shop’. But how did we get to this point? Historically, what is it that has made us want to buy? This module explores how shopping, as we understand it today, evolved. Considering shopping at different points in Britain's history - the market places and specialist shops of the eighteenth century, the High Streets and warehouses of the nineteenth century, the department stores and malls of the twentieth century - we will examine the birth of the modern consumer society and within it, the roles played by manufacturer, seller, advertiser and shopper.