Women’s Committee Virtual Book Club – ‘Branding Trust’

Join us for our next virtual book club! Hosted by the Economic History Society Women’s Committee, this book club will be an opportunity to learn about and discuss the recent book by Dr Jennifer Black, Branding Trust: Advertising and Trademarks in Nineteenth-Century America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023).

In the early nineteenth century, the American commercial marketplace was a chaotic, unregulated environment in which knock-offs and outright frauds thrived. Appearances could be deceiving, and entrepreneurs often relied on their personal reputations to close deals and make sales. Rapid industrialization and expanding trade routes opened new markets with enormous potential, but how could distant merchants convince potential customers, whom they had never met, that they could be trusted? Through wide-ranging visual and textual evidence, including a robust selection of early advertisements, Branding Trust tells the story of how advertising evolved to meet these challenges, tracing the themes of character and class as they intertwined with and influenced graphic design, trademark law, and ideas about ethical business practice in the United States.

Jennifer M. Black is Associate Professor of History at Misericordia University. Her research examines ways in which people interact with images and objects, and the power of visual and material culture to influence trends in politics, the law, and society.

Any queries can be directed to Dr Emily Buchnea.

Register now.