Originally published in 1999, the articles in this book range widely in presenting the breadth of new approaches to department store history. examining themes as varied as the new public space department stores provided for women, the politics of consumption and the architecture of the new stores.

Serge Jaumain, Geoffrey Crossick

1. The World of the Department Store: Distribution, Culture and Social Change, Geoffrey Crossick and Serge Jaumain. 2. The Newness of the Department Store: A View from the Eighteenth Century, Claire Walsh. 3. Department Stores as Retail Innovation in Germany: A Historica-Geographical Perspective on the Period 1870-1914. 4. 'Doing the Shops' at Christmas: Women, Men and the Department Store in England, c. 1880-1914, Christopher P. Hosgood. 5. Marianne in the Department Store: Gender and the Politics of Consumption in Turn-of-the-Century Paris, Lisa Tiersten. 6. Theft and Thieves in German Department Stores, 1895-1930: A Discourse on Morality, Crime and Gender, Uwe Spiekermann. 7. Selling Dreams: Advertising Strategies from Grands Magasins to Supermarkets in Ghent, 1900-1960. 8. Acts of Consumption: Musical Comedy and the Desire of Exchange, Erika D. Rappaport. 9. Department Stores and Middle-Class Consumerism in Budapest, 1896-1939, Gábor Gyáni. 10. Les Magasins Réunis: From the Provinces to Paris, From Art Nouveau to Art Deco, Catherine Coley. 11. From Messel to Mendelsohn: German Department Store Architecture in Defence of Urban and Economic Change, Kathleen James. 12. Training Sales Personnel in France Between the Wars, Marie-Emmanuelle Chessel. 13. Employers' Organisations in French Department Stores Dring the Inter-War Period: Between Conservatism and Innovation.