×
Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date.
For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now.

30.0
In Stock
Overview
From Paleolithic flax to 3D knitting, explore the global history of textiles and the world they weave together in this enthralling and educational guide.
The story of humanity is the story of textiles as old as civilization itself. Since the first thread was spun, the need for textiles has driven technology, business, politics, and culture.
In The Fabric of Civilization, Virginia Postrel synthesizes groundbreaking research from archaeology, economics, and science to reveal a surprising history. From Minoans exporting wool colored with precious purple dye to Egypt, to Romans arrayed in costly Chinese silk, the cloth trade paved the crossroads of the ancient world. Textiles funded the Renaissance and the Mughal Empire; they gave us banks and bookkeeping, Michelangelo's David and the Taj Mahal. The cloth business spread the alphabet and arithmetic, propelled chemical research, and taught people to think in binary code.
Assiduously researched and deftly narrated, The Fabric of Civilization tells the story of the world's most influential commodity.
The story of humanity is the story of textiles as old as civilization itself. Since the first thread was spun, the need for textiles has driven technology, business, politics, and culture.
In The Fabric of Civilization, Virginia Postrel synthesizes groundbreaking research from archaeology, economics, and science to reveal a surprising history. From Minoans exporting wool colored with precious purple dye to Egypt, to Romans arrayed in costly Chinese silk, the cloth trade paved the crossroads of the ancient world. Textiles funded the Renaissance and the Mughal Empire; they gave us banks and bookkeeping, Michelangelo's David and the Taj Mahal. The cloth business spread the alphabet and arithmetic, propelled chemical research, and taught people to think in binary code.
Assiduously researched and deftly narrated, The Fabric of Civilization tells the story of the world's most influential commodity.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781541617605 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Basic Books |
Publication date: | 11/10/2020 |
Pages: | 320 |
Sales rank: | 11,118 |
Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d) |
About the Author
Virginia Postrel is an award-winning journalist and independent scholar. She is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and has been a columnist for the Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. She is the author of the highly acclaimed The Substance of Style and The Power of Glamour. Her research is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. She lives in Los Angeles, California.
Table of Contents
Preface: The Fabric of Civilization 1
Chapter 1 Fiber 7
Chapter 2 Thread 41
Chapter 3 Cloth 71
Chapter 4 Dye 109
Chapter 5 Traders 147
Chapter 6 Consumers 179
Chapter 7 Innovators 217
Afterword: Why Textiles? 247
Acknowledgments 251
Glossary 255
Notes 261
Index 291
Customer Reviews
Related Searches
Explore More Items
At the turn of the twenty-first century, the central question confronting Jewish leaders in America ...
At the turn of the twenty-first century, the central question confronting Jewish leaders in America
is simple:Why be Jewish? Jonathan D. Sarna, acclaimed scholar of American Judaism, believes that Why be Jewish? is the wrong question. Judaism, he believes, is ...
In the summer of 1962, Andy Warhol unveiled 32 Soup Cans in his first solo ...
In the summer of 1962, Andy Warhol unveiled 32 Soup Cans in his first solo
exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles -- and sent the art world reeling. The responses ran from incredulity to outrage; the poet Taylor ...
Why did the Founding Fathers fail to include blacks and Indians in their cherished proposition ...
Why did the Founding Fathers fail to include blacks and Indians in their cherished proposition
that all men are created equal? The usual answer is racism, but the reality is more complex and unsettling. In Bind Us Apart, historian Nicholas ...
Something instructive occurred in the process of entitling the present collection. Both editor and publisher ...
Something instructive occurred in the process of entitling the present collection. Both editor and publisher
sought a simple and succinct rubric for the various pieces of work. But they rapidly and reluctantly reached the consensus that, by either intellectual or ...
Today every business is an e-business, and whether you are selling golf outings over the ...
Today every business is an e-business, and whether you are selling golf outings over the
Internet or manufacturing the carts, there is no escaping the fact that every aspect of organizational design is profoundly affected by the new rules of ...
A Nobel Prize-winning biologist tells the riveting story of his race to discover the inner ...
A Nobel Prize-winning biologist tells the riveting story of his race to discover the inner
workings of biology's most important molecule Ramakrishnan's writing is so honest, lucid and engaging that I could not put this book down until I had ...
A distinguished religious leader's stirring case for reconstructing a shared framework of virtues and values. ...
A distinguished religious leader's stirring case for reconstructing a shared framework of virtues and values.
With liberal democracy embattled, public discourse grown toxic, family life breaking down, and drug abuse and depression on the rise, many fear what the future ...
The definitive account of Passchendaele, the months-long battle that epitomizes the immense tragedy of the ...
The definitive account of Passchendaele, the months-long battle that epitomizes the immense tragedy of the
First World War Passchendaele. The name of a small, seemingly insignificant Flemish village echoes across the twentieth century as the ultimate expression of meaningless, industrialized ...