Professor Maxine Berg

Contact Information:

 
Office: H020
Phone: 02476 523377
Email: Maxine.Berg@warwick.ac.uk

 

 

Academic Profile
Other Appointments, Fellowships and Academies
  • European Research Council Fellow, 2010-2014
  • Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, September-December 2009
  • Visiting Senior Fellow, Dept. of Economic History, LSE, September 2009 - March 2010
  • 2003-4 Guggenheim Fellow and Senior Fellow, Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford
  • Standing Committee of the British Academy, Modern History Section
  • Member of the Grants Board of the British Academy
  • Grants Officer Modern History Section Committee of British Academy, 2004-7
  • Member British Academy Records of Social and Economic History Committee, 2004-7
  • Member of Knowledge Transfer Panel, AHRC, 2006-7
  • Member of Selection Committee Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Programme, Harvard University 2004 to present
  • Member of Giunta Esecutiva of the Fondazione Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “F.Datini”, 1999-2006
  • Member of Comitato Scientifico of the Datini Institute, Prato, Italy, 1999-2010
  • Member of the Research Priorities Board ESRC, 1998-2002
  • Member of Council of the Economic History Society, 1993-1999
 
 
Undergraduate Modules Taught
 
Postgraduate Modules Taught

 

Selected Publications

 
Books:

  • Luxury and Pleasure in Eighteenth-Century Britain (OUP, 2005)
  • Ed. with Elizabeth Eger, Luxury in the Eighteenth Century: Debates, Desires and Delectable Goods (Palgrave 2002)
  • Ed. With Helen Clifford, Consumers and Luxury in Europe 1650-1850 (Manchester University Press, 1999)
  • Ed. With Kristine Bruland, Technological Revolutions in Europe 1760-1860 (Edward Elgar, 1997)
  • A Woman in History; Eileen Power 1889-1940 (Cambridge, 1996)
  • The Age of Manufactures. Second Edition (Routledge, 1994)

Articles:

  • 'Cargoes: the Trade in Luxuries from Asia to Europe', in David Cannadine, ed. Maritime Trade and Empire, Palgrave Press (2007)
  • 'From Global History to Globalization', History Workshop Journal, Issue 66, 2008
  • 'Selling Consumption in the Eighteenth Century: Advertising and the Trade Card in Britain and France', written with Helen Clifford, Cultural and Social History, vol.4 (2), 2007, pp. 9-34.
  • 'Britain, Industry and Perceptions of China: Matthew Boulton, 'Useful Knowledge' and the Macartney Embassy to China 1792-4', Journal of Global History, vol. 1 (2), July 2006, pp. 269-288.   
  • Special issue edition of History of Science: 'Reflections on Joel Mokyr's The Gifts of Athena, edited set of papers by Maxine Berg, Joel Mokyr, Larry Stewart, Liliane Hilaire-Perez, Kristine Bruland: Vol. 45 (2), 2007, pp. 125-196
  • 'The Genesis of Useful Knowledge' - article for Special Issue of History of Science, vol. 49 (2), 2007, pp. 123-133.
  • 'In Pursuit of Luxury: Global Origins of British Consumer Goods in the Eighteenth Century', Past and Present, 182, 2004
  • 'Consumption and Consumers 1700-1850' in R.C. Floud and Paul Johnson, eds. An Economic History of Britain, vol. 1 (Cambridge University Press, 2003)
  • 'From Imitation to Invention: Creating Commodities in Eighteenth-Century Britain', Economic History Review, 45, 2002
  • 'Shopping for Britain: British Products in the Eighteenth Century' History Today (July, 2005)
  • (With Matthew Craske) 'Art and History: Business Organization and Luxury Manufacture in the Eighteenth Century' in Proceedings of the Instituto Internazionale di Storia Economica F. Datini, Prato, vol. 33, 2002
  • 'French Fancy and Cool Britannia: the Fashion Markets of Early Modern Europe' in Proceedings of the Instituto Internazionale di Storia Economica F. Datini, Prato, vol. 32, 2001.
 
Research

 
Funded Research Projects:

Research Interests:

Global history, especially Asia and Europe in the early modern period; history of knowledge and technology; history of material culture, especially porcelain and luxury manufactured goods; also history writing and historiography 1920s - 1960s.

  • 'Eurasian Trade and European Markets 1600-1830.’ This is a study of Asian export ware produced for and traded in the consumer markets of Europe and the Atlantic world. How did East India Companies, private traders and Indian and Chinese merchants design goods of wide appeal to Western markets, and organize their production and distribution systems in this long-distance trade in material goods and culture between Asia and Europe? How were these Asian-produced goods collected and displayed in European and American public and private interiors? What part did this Eurasian trade play in stimulating Europe’s consumer and industrial revolutions?
  • Wealth and Knowledge: the Transmission of Useful Knowledge 1600-1850’. A study of how craft, tacit and formal knowledge was transmitted among manufacturers, especially in luxury goods across Europe and between Europe and Asia.
  • International historical associations in the postwar era.
  • I am a member of GEHN (the Global Economic History Network). See Gehn (LSE)

 

Current Research Student Supervision:
  • Tim Davies, 'Private Merchants and Global Trade: Commercial Networking in the 18th Century Indian Ocean' (PhD Thesis)
  • Tim McEvoy, 'The Commercial Culture of Maritime Innovation: Britain and Venice in the Eighteenth Century' (ESRC PhD - supervised jointly with Dr. Luca Molà)
  • Anna Moran, 'The Market for Irish Glass in the Nineteenth Century' (PhD Thesis)



Recently Completed PhD's
  • Sarah Easterby-Smith, 'The commerce and culture of natural history collecting in Britain and France, c. 1750-1800' (ESRC PhD Thesis)
  • Philippa Hubbard, 'Eighteenth-Century Advertising: the Trade Card' (Leverhulme Project PhD Thesis)
  • Kate Smith, 'Perceptions and Constructions of Workmanship in Eighteenth-Century British Culture: the Case of Ceramics' (PhD Thesis)

 

Postdoctoral Fellows
  • Dr. Marie Thébaud-Sorger, Marie Curie Fellow 2008-10.