Objects in Conflict: The Material Culture of Intercultural Diplomacy, 1600–1830 (Routledge Research in Early Modern History) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 103288469X ISBN 13: 9781032884691

Publisher: Routledge, 2026

Synopsis

This book presents case studies that analyze the diplomatic uses and functions of robes, furniture, weapons, tools, jewelry, paintings, sculptures, books, food, and other material objects in early modern inter-cultural diplomatic encounters in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and the Pacific world.

Readers will gain insights into the material dimensions of early modern diplomacy and the cultural logics and diplomatic rationales of object use in a wide range of regional, political, and imperial contexts spanning the Habsburg Empire, France, Spain, the Ottoman Empire, British and French colonial North America, colonial Mexico, Hawaii, and the South Seas. Transcending the established topic of gift exchanges, the volume aims at an analysis of the overall material settings of early modern diplomatic encounters. With its
clear temporal focus on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the source-driven case studies on concrete objects and object groups open multiple paths into the complexities of the early modern era as a formative phase in the history of diplomacy.

The book is intended for historians of the early modern period, particularly diplomatic history, political history, art history, cultural history, religious history, and regional history. It is also relevant for scholars in the field of material culture studies, ethnography, and museology.

About this title

About the Author

Volker Depkat is Professor of American Studies at the University of Regensburg, Germany. His recent publications include American Exceptionalism (2021), A New American Confederation: How German Federalism Inspired the US-Constitution (2024; co-authored), and Representations and Uses of the American Revolution in Past and Present (2025; co-edited).

Harriet Rudolph is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Regensburg, Germany. Her publications include Material Culture in Modern Diplomacy from the 15th to the 20th Century (2016; co-edited) and “Istanbul as a Collection Site: Cross-Cultural Networks of Knowledge in the Alba Amicorum of Ernst Brinck and Wolfgang Leuthkauff” in WissensWelten – Worlds of Knowledge (2026).

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 103288469X
• ISBN 13: 9781032884691
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 348
• Editor: Depkat Volker, Rudolph Harriet