Includes bibliographical references (pages [289]-369) and index.

Time up for Master Humphrey's clock -- Stuffed animals (1950s-1990s) -- Nellie Dark's bundles (1930s-1950s) -- Darn (1900s-1930s) -- Reconstructors and destructors (1880-1900s) -- Impostor instruments (1850-1880s) -- The wonderland of rework (1840s-1850s) -- Rebaptisms of fire (1830s-1840s) -- Dustwomen and a straw man (1780s-1830s) -- Once more unto the breeches (1720s-1780s) -- Uncivil speculations (1630s-1720s) -- Leading the reforms (1530s-1630s) -- Conclusion: to singe a goose.

Rummaging through the debris of history to find the stories that shaped our world. Rummage tells the long story of British recycling: from buttons turned into whistles, to dog hair spun into yarn, from Victorian gentlemen selling papier-mâché pianofortes and Puritan soldiers making kites from books, to Second World War stretchers reused as railings. In this fascinating and original new book, historian Emily Cockayne illuminates our relationship to rubbish, and reveals how these attitudes have defined private and public life, built and destroyed businesses, shaped wars and created history. Starting with the hyper-consumerism of the 1990s, working backwards through world wars, Napoleonic wars and civil wars, all the way to the Reformation, Cockayne exposes the hidden work that has gone into shaping the material world for successive generations. Richly detailed, full of surprising stories and ingenious characters, Rummage shows how we have come to throw away so much, and what lessons might be drawn from the past to address urgent contemporary dilemmas.