Selling Empire

“A fascinating foray into the entangled histories of consumption and production in India, colonial America, and Britain.” — Diplomatic History

“A work of extraordinary scope based upon a remarkable amount of archival and library research. . . . Reveal[s] fresh ways of thinking about the growth of the international economy, as well as the interconnected histories of Britain, India, and the United States.” — Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“Should rank high on the required reading lists of all those interested in the history of the early modern world, economics, material culture, early America, and the British Empire.” — William and Mary Quarterly

“Supplies the reader, in every paragraph on every page, with a way of thinking between and across the scales of historical experience. Not one detail is insignificant.” — Winterthur Portfolio

“Dismantling the old notion of a swing to the east (India) after the American Revolution in favor of an earlier imperial system, Selling Empire will come to stand as one of the most articulate arguments about the integrated nature of Britain’s global empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.” — Tillman Nechtman, Skidmore College

“Engagingly written, deeply researched, and cleverly conceived, Selling Empire reveals just how much 'India'—as an abstract idea, a political issue, and a wide range of commodities, from calicoes to elephants—circulated through the Atlantic world. Eacott’s work is a shining exemplar of early America’s global turn and will no doubt prove to be critical reading for those interested in colonial and imperial history as well as early modern political and material culture.” — Philip J. Stern, Duke University

“Recognizing the significance of ideas as well as goods, Selling Empire demonstrates how the British experience in India furthered imperial expansion in America. In this wide-ranging study that connects imperial ambitions in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, Eacott analyzes the global development of the British empire in a fresh way.” — Kariann Akemi Yokota, University of Colorado Denver