:Free Trade Nation: Commerce, Consumption, and Civil Society in Modern Britain

Abstract

This book examines the decline of free trade in Britain. Frank Trentmann wants us to read his work as a tract for our times and states repeatedly that current debates about globalization are lacking in historical perspective. He attempts to clarify the issues and strike a blow against ignorance. In its heyday during the Edwardian period, free trade was a deeply rooted democratic culture, central to public life and national identity and resting not just on economic ideas but also on emotional appeal, inspiring rhetoric, excitement, events, entertainment, advertising, instruction, and inclusive campaigns that drew in people of all sorts. Free trade was “ubiquitous .… spilling over into the most ordinary and intimate aspects of private as well as public life” (p. 133). It was strong enough to withstand the pressure of protectionism, to which other trading nations had succumbed, and Britain was, uniquely, the home of the proud and prosperous citizen-consumer for whom free trade meant liberty, rights, and peace.