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Article: Idols of the Marketplace: Idolatry and Commodity Fetishism in English Literature, 1580-1680. (Reviews of Books).(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Albion
- Article date:
- March 22, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 North American Conference on British Studies. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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David Hawkes. Idols of the Marketplace: Idolatry and Commodity Fetishism in English Literature, 1580-1680. (Early Modern Cultural Studies, 1500-1700.) New York: Palgrave. 2001. Pp. x, 294. $55.00. ISBN 0-312-24007-4.
In this wide-ranging and strikingly original book, David Hawkes traces the connections between idolatry and commodity fetishism in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. In particular, he argues that contemporaries launched an ethical critique of embryonic capitalism that retains its force today. Hawkes focuses on capitalism as a system of production for exchange, a commodity-based economy. He argues that an Aristotelian natural teleology was ...