The chapters offer examples from France, the Congo, Burkina Faso, Romania, and Britain, offering students and scholars a diverse range of examples to learn from.

The book shows how everyday objects played a certain kind of role in politics which is particular to material things which will enable students to expand their view of political institutions and the social history of politics.

Each chapter shows, how historians change their approach to politics by incorporating objects into their methodology and offers a means to develop different approaches to understanding political history allowing students to see how to use material sources and how they can inform our understanding of the past.