{"title":"Books by Daniel Miller","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780745644042","title":"The Comfort of Things","description":"What do we know about ordinary people in our towns and cities, about what really matters to them and how they organize their lives today? This book visits an ordinary street and looks into thirty households. It reveals the aspirations and frustrations, the tragedies and accomplishments that are played out behind the doors. It focuses on the things that matter to these people, which quite often turn out to be material things – their house, the dog, their music, the Christmas decorations. These are the means by which they express who they have become, and relationships to objects turn out to be central to their relationships with other people – children, lovers, brothers and friends. If this is a typical street in a modern city like London, then what kind of society is this? It’s not a community, nor a neighbourhood, nor is it a collection of isolated individuals. It isn’t dominated by the family. We assume that social life is corrupted by materialism, made superficial and individualistic by a surfeit of consumer goods, but this is misleading. If the street isn’t any of these things, then what is it? This brilliant and revealing portrayal of a street in modern London, written by one the most prominent anthropologists, shows how much is to be gained when we stop lamenting what we think we used to be and focus instead on what we are now becoming. It reveals the forms by which ordinary people make sense of their lives, and the ways in which objects become our companions in the daily struggle to make life meaningful.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56296285274485,"sku":"9780745644042","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780745644042_67bc6b45-ce34-44a9-b883-87648711a1c8.jpg?v=1786014591"},{"product_id":"9780745661087","title":"Consumption and Its Consequences","description":"This is a book for those looking for different answers to some of  today's most fundamental questions. What is a consumer society? Does  being a consumer make us less authentic or more materialistic? How and  why do we shop? How should we understand the economy? Is our seemingly  insatiable desire for goods destroying the planet? Can we reconcile  curbs on consumption with goals such as reducing poverty and social  inequality? Miller responds to these questions by proposing feasible and, where  possible, currently available alternatives, drawn mainly from his own  original ethnographic research. Here you will find shopping analysed as a  technology of love, clothing that sidesteps politics in tackling issues  of immigration. There is an alternative theory of value that does not  assume the economy is intelligent, scientific, moral or immoral. We see  Coca-Cola as an example of localization, not globalization. We learn why  the response to climate change will work only when we reverse our  assumptions about the impact of consumption on citizens. Given the  evidence that consumption is now central to the way we create and  maintain our core values and relationships, the conclusions differ  dramatically from conventional and accepted views as to its consequences  for humanity and the planet.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56297159295349,"sku":"9780745661087","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780745661087_ec63fb5c-ec85-4490-8a9e-e1c9ccab31ef.jpg?v=1786014659"},{"product_id":"9780745644240","title":"Stuff","description":"Things make us just as much as we make things. And yet, unlike the study of languages or places, there is no discipline devoted to the study of material things. This book shows why it is time to acknowledge and confront this neglect and how much we can learn from focusing our attention on stuff. The book opens with a critique of the concept of superficiality as applied to clothing. It presents the theories that are required to understand the way we are created by material as well as social relations. It takes us inside the very private worlds of our home possessions and our processes of accommodating. It considers issues of materiality in relation to the media, as well as the implications of such an approach in relation, for example, to poverty. Finally, the book considers objects which we use to define what it is to be alive and how we use objects to cope with death.    Based on more than thirty years of research in the Caribbean, India, London and elsewhere, Stuff is nothing less than a manifesto for the study of material culture and a new way of looking at the objects that surround us and make up so much of our social and personal life.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56297748922741,"sku":"9780745644240","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780745644240_908f2a1a-8e41-4518-8e32-aaa7b86a9afd.jpg?v=1786014592"},{"product_id":"9781464254468","title":"The Orphanage by the Lake","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe first instalment in a new psychological crime thriller duology from Daniel G. Miller offers a twisty, suspenseful thrill ride for fans of Freida McFadden, Charlie Donlea and Karin Slaughter.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e‘Irresistible.’\u003c\/i\u003e – James Patterson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eA missing girl. An orphanage filled with secrets.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA lie worth killing for.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHazel wants a new life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe's thirty years old, single, and her private investigation business is months away from folding.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHer luck takes a turn when Madeline Hemsley, a mysterious socialite, pays Hazel a visit with an offer too enticing to resist. An orphan girl has disappeared from a children's home – The Orphanage By The Lake, as the locals call it – and Madeline wants Hazel to find her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt first glance, it appears to be a standard runaway case, but as Hazel plunges into the investigation, she finds signs of something more: unexplained blood stains, cryptic symbols, sinister figures shadowing her every move. The more she digs, the more she realises that The Orphanage By The Lake holds terrifying secrets, and even worse…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e…so does Madeline.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFans of Freida McFadden's \u003ci\u003eThe Housemaid\u003c\/i\u003e, Charlie Donlea's \u003ci\u003eThe Girl Who Was Taken\u003c\/i\u003e, and Karin Slaughter's \u003ci\u003ePretty Girls\u003c\/i\u003e will love this suspenseful, haunting mystery that introduces a bold new heroine in the world of crime fiction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTropes:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePsychological\u003cbr\u003eMystery Thriller\u003cbr\u003eSuspense Thriller\u003cbr\u003eMissing Person\u003cbr\u003ePrivate Investigator\u003cbr\u003eCharacter-Driven\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKeep an eye out for book two, \u003ci\u003eThe Red Letter\u003c\/i\u003e, arriving in July 2025!\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56299853513077,"sku":"9781464254468","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781464254468_a6ee7216-422c-4125-94fc-452fac10b61c.jpg?v=1786020407"},{"product_id":"9781509559657","title":"The Good Enough Life","description":"This book is a highly original exploration of what life could and should be. It juxtaposes a philosophical enquiry into the nature of the good life with an ethnography of people living in a small Irish town.  Attending carefully to the everyday lives of these people, the ethnographic chapters examine topics ranging from freedom and inequality to the creation of community and the purpose of life. These chapters alternate with discussions of similar topics by a wide range of philosophers in the Western tradition, from Socrates and the Stoics through Kant, Hegel, and Heidegger to Adorno, Rawls, MacIntyre, and Nussbaum.    As an ethnography, this book reveals just how much we can learn from a respectful acknowledgement of what ordinary modest people have achieved. By creating community as a deliberate and social project that provides the foundation for a more fulfilling life, where affluence has not led to an increase in individualism, the people in this town have found a way to live the good enough life. The book also shows how anthropology and philosophy can complement and enrich one another in an enquiry into what we might accomplish in our lives.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56302606254453,"sku":"9781509559657","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781509559657_e77c8677-9848-4e06-8b88-e3f89ae88687.jpg?v=1786022153"},{"product_id":"the-dialectics-of-shopping","title":"The Dialectics of Shopping","description":"Shopping is generally considered to be a pleasurable activity. But in reality it can often be complicated and frustrating. Daniel Miller explores the many contradictions faced by shoppers on a typical street in London, and in the process offers a sophisticated examination of the way we shop, and what it reveals about our relationships to our families and communities, as well as to the environment and the economy as a whole.   Miller's companions are mostly women who confront these contradictions as they shop. They placate their children with items that combine nutrition with taste or usefulness with style. They decide between shopping at the local store or at the impersonal, but less expensive, mall. They tell of their sympathy for environmental concerns but somehow avoid much ethical shopping. They are faced with a selection of shops whose shifts and mergers often reveal extraordinary stories of their own. Filled with entertaining—and thoroughly familiar—stories of shoppers and shops, this book will interest scholars across a broad range of disciplines.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466830881141,"sku":"9780226526461","price":80.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780226526461.jpg?v=1785654904"},{"product_id":"buried-in-the-woods-below","title":"Buried in the Woods Below","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePerfect for fans of Freida McFadden's \u003ci\u003eThe Housemaid\u003c\/i\u003e, Riley Sager's \u003ci\u003eThe Only One Left\u003c\/i\u003e and Alice Feeney's \u003ci\u003eMy Husband's Wife\u003c\/i\u003e, this addictive psychological suspense-thriller is a must-read for anyone who loves dark secrets, isolated settings, and jaw-dropping twists.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSOME MEMORIES WERE NEVER MEANT TO STAY BURIED.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Charlotte Hoffman’s picture-perfect career implodes overnight, she retreats to the one place she swore she’d never return: Big Island, Minnesota. Home to her childhood best friend, Olivia Parker, and the place where her life first fell apart.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEighteen years ago, tragedy struck, and Charlotte’s blamed herself for that bloody night ever since. Now she’s back, staying with the Parkers in their isolated lakeside home, surrounded by dark woods shrouded in mist and the decaying remains of a long-abandoned amusement park.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut something isn’t right.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Parkers’ young twin girls whisper about ghosts in the trees. Threatening notes appear on doors. An old carousel screams in the wind. And every night the island claims another victim.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs Charlotte wades ever-deeper into danger, she can’t shake the feeling that someone brought her back to the isolated island for a reason.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSomeone who wants to finish what was started all those years ago.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57504847102325,"sku":"9781615958368","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781615958368.jpg?v=1786953764"},{"product_id":"buried-in-the-woods-below-deluxe-edition","title":"Buried in the Woods Below (Deluxe Edition)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e**LIMITED EDITION WITH DELUXE DESIGNED EDGES**\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePerfect for fans of Freida McFadden's \u003ci\u003eThe Housemaid\u003c\/i\u003e, Riley Sager's \u003ci\u003eThe Only One Left\u003c\/i\u003e and Alice Feeney's \u003ci\u003eMy Husband's Wife\u003c\/i\u003e, this addictive psychological suspense-thriller is a must-read for anyone who loves dark secrets, isolated settings, and jaw-dropping twists.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSOME MEMORIES WERE NEVER MEANT TO STAY BURIED.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Charlotte Hoffman’s picture-perfect career implodes overnight, she retreats to the one place she swore she’d never return: Big Island, Minnesota. Home to her childhood best friend, Olivia Parker, and the place where her life first fell apart.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEighteen years ago, tragedy struck, and Charlotte’s blamed herself for that bloody night ever since. Now she’s back, staying with the Parkers in their isolated lakeside home, surrounded by dark woods shrouded in mist and the decaying remains of a long-abandoned amusement park.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut something isn’t right.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Parkers’ young twin girls whisper about ghosts in the trees. Threatening notes appear on doors. An old carousel screams in the wind. And every night the island claims another victim.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs Charlotte wades ever-deeper into danger, she can’t shake the feeling that someone brought her back to the isolated island for a reason.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSomeone who wants to finish what was started all those years ago.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57504992330101,"sku":"9781464268137","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781464268137.jpg?v=1786953912"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-daniel-miller.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}