A Trade in Dreams: A Century of Egyptian Print Advertising

A lavishly illustrated cultural history of print advertising in Egypt

At the tail end of the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution was shifting economies and redrawing global power maps. In this changing world, advertising became more than just a way to sell products--it was a powerful tool that shaped ideas about what to buy, why to buy it, and what it means to be modern. In colonized societies, these changes came swiftly and dramatically. Drawing on over 350 images of magazine and newspaper ads, Bahia Shehab reveals how consumer culture intertwined with political, social, and economic change during the period between 1880 and 1980 in Egypt. She shows how the Egyptian market navigated the influx of European and American luxury goods, from fine fabrics and jewelry to agricultural machinery, and how these items became symbols of aspiration and, at times, ignited a wave of national resistance. At once a visual feast and a compelling history of commerce and industry in Egypt, A Trade in Dreams sheds light on a time when ads did more than sell--they mirrored dreams, ambitions, and the realities of a nation in transition.

Bahia Shehab is professor and founder of the graphic design program at the American University in Cairo. An artist, designer, and art historian, her work has received a number of international awards, including a TED Senior Fellowship, a Prince Claus Award, and the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture. She is co-author of A History of Arab Graphic Design (AUC Press, 2020)and author of A Thousand Times NO: The Visual History of Lam-Alif (2010).