Silk: A World History

by Aarathi Prasad

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

The first book to comprehensively explore the science, culture and history of silk, from its origins to its modern-day impact. This is a deep dive into a fascinating subject, told in poetic prose.

A Next Big Idea Book Club Must-Read for April

"Aarathi Prasad spins a masterpiece of a story, as luminous, supple, and surprising as the wondrous threads themselves." —Sy Montgomery, bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus and Of Time and Turtles

Throughout history, across cultures and countries, silk has reigned as the undeniable queen of fabrics, yet its origins and evolution remain a mystery. In a gorgeous and sweeping narrative, Silk weaves together its intricate story and the indelible mark it has left on humanity.

Some four thousand years ago, the cultivation of silkworms began, the practice spreading to the far reaches of civilization. With it came a growing obsession with unlocking silk’s secrets to understand how the strongest biological material ever known could be harnessed.

Explorers and scientists, including groundbreaking women who pushed the boundaries of societal expectations, dedicated—even sacrificed—their lives to investigate the anatomy of silk-producing animals. They endured unbelievable hardships to discover and collect new specimens, leading them to the moths of China, Indonesia, and India; the spiders of Argentina, Paraguay, and Madagascar; and the mollusks of the Mediterranean.

Rich with the complex connections between human and nonhuman worlds, Silk not only peers into the past but also reveals the fiber’s impact today, inspiring new technologies across the fashion, military, and medical fields, and shows its untapped potential to pioneer a more sustainable future.

The culmination of author and biologist Aarathi Prasad’s own lifelong passion and grounded in years of research and writing, Silk is an intoxicating read that provides an essential illumination of nature’s most glamourous thread.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063160255
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/30/2024
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	16,122
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Aarathi Prasad is a writer, broadcaster, and researcher. Born in London to an Indian mother who wore only silk saris and a Caribbean father who loved the natural world, Aarathi was educated in the West Indies and the UK. After completing a PhD in molecular genetics from Imperial College London, she later trained in bioarchaeology. She is an Honorary Research Fellow at University College London’s Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, and part of an international team excavating and analyzing ancient DNA from funerary sites in Spain, Rome, and Pompeii. She is the author of two books published in the UK, In the Bonesetter's Waiting Room: Travels Through Indian Medicine and Like a Virgin: How Science Is Redesigning the Rules of Sex.

Editorial Reviews

03/25/2024

Over time, many individuals and cultures have independently discovered how to make silk, according to this illuminating history from bioarcheologist Prasad (In the Bonesetter’s Waiting Room). The fabric, prized for its beauty, is also one of the strongest biologically produced materials; it was even used to make the first bulletproof vest (for Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who fatefully neglected to wear it on the day of his assassination in 1914). Most famously harvested from a species of silkworm (a moth in its larval stage, attempting to spin a cocoon) that was domesticated in ancient China, silk can also be derived from spiders and mollusks. In a narrative keenly focused on scientific fieldwork and invention, Prasad tells the story of silk’s development mostly through profiles of naturalists and detailed descriptions of archaeological finds. Subjects include Dutch scientist-illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian, who in 1699 traveled to Suriname and collected specimens of silk-producing moth species that later helped Holland compete with China’s carefully guarded silk industry, and the 20th-century archaeological discovery of ancient Rome’s reliance on mollusk-silk. Prasad concludes by spotlighting current innovations in medicine and tech involving silk, and points to the fabric’s radical potential in a world that wants to ween itself off plastics. Thanks to her elegant prose, the book’s deeply informed scientific explanations are charming and accessible. Readers will revel in this exquisite deep dive. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"In Silk, Aarathi Prasad spins a masterpiece of a story, as luminous, supple, and surprising as the wondrous threads themselves. Page after page I was shocked and spellbound by the efforts of researchers obsessed by silk's mysteries, and by the profound impact of a substance extruded by humble invertebrates on the course of human history. Most of all, I came away from this riveting book awed and humbled by the powers of silk-weaving animals themselves. I'm heartened to read of new efforts to create this magical substance, inspired by, but without subjugating, the animals who have given us this amazing gift." — Sy Montgomery, bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus and Of Time and Turtles

“The story of silk—a material simultaneously familiar and exotic—is more than an eye-opening history, more than a meditation on humans' complex relationship to nature. It is the very story, rich and deeply interwoven, of ourselves. There is no better guide to weave us through its science, its narrative, and its deeply human revelations than Aarathi Prasad.” — Brian Christian, author of The Alignment Problem and Algorithms to Live By

"Both scientific and poetic, this remarkable book shows how the great tides of history are shaped through human encounters with the intricate variety of the non-human world." — David Wengrow, co-author of the international bestseller The Dawn of Everything

"Prasad unwinds tangled threads to weave one arc. . . Fascinating facts abound." — Scientific American

"A vibrant cultural and scientific history . . . [R]ichly detailed . . . A colorful, wholly absorbing narrative tapestry." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Silk is entertaining and enlightening, brimming with story and scientific detail. It reveals a surprising history well worth knowing." — BookPage

"Thanks to [Prasad's] elegant prose, the book’s deeply informed scientific explanations are charming and accessible. Readers will revel in this exquisite deep dive." — Publishers Weekly

”Who would have thought that a book about silkworms and spiders could be so fascinating? Aarathi Prasad criss-crosses centuries and cultures to tell of the intrepid explorers, botanists, scientists, and entrepreneurs who were determined to unravel the secrets of silk production. Her book captures their persistence and her own in the search for the little-told but revelatory stories of human curiosity and ingenuity.” — Clare Hunter, author of Threads of Life

“Aarathi Prasad has woven a wonder of a narrative. Like the transformation of caterpillar to moth that she explores so beautifully, this is a network of threads that spin around the world and tell a story of science, of history, of humanity itself.” — Kate Strasdin, author of The Dress Diary of Mrs. Anne Sykes

"An incredible read. Deeply researched, dazzling. Prasad weaves a magical thread through history, culture, science and nature, unfolding the long and deep relationship we have with the natural history of silk and the creatures that make it." — Seirian Sumner, author of Endless Forms

"Prasad weaves her strands of science, history, and culture to create a rich narrative tapestry that's as sumptuous as the material itself. Full of fascinating detail." — Gaia Vince, author of Nomad Century

From the Publisher

★ 2024-03-20
The past and future of a coveted fabric.

Geneticist Prasad, author of In the Bonesetter's Waiting Room, delivers a vibrant cultural and scientific history of an amazing natural fiber: silk. From a diet of mulberry leaves, the caterpillars that Linnaeus called Bombyx mori extrude threads that form a cocoon, protecting them as they transform into moths. The extraordinary properties of this thread became the basis of cloth-making by Neolithic Chinese farmers, who bred and harvested the silkworms and also used the eggs, larvae, pupae, and feces in traditional medicines, dyes, fertilizers, and flavoring. However, silk-making did not originate only in China. Archaeological expeditions to India have found evidence of silk in artifacts made between 2450 and 2000 B.C.E.—not from Bombyx mori, but from other distinct types of moths across the subcontinent. Besides tracing the earliest evidence of silk production, Prasad creates richly detailed portraits of the many 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century naturalists who devoted themselves to investigating the mysterious process of metamorphosis, the anatomy of silkworms, and the properties of silk threads, making intrepid journeys in search of caterpillars. Although prized for the shimmering luster that made it a hugely profitable commodity in international trade, silk—especially spider silk—is also extremely strong, making it useful for suturing and dressing wounds and for military use, including creating crosshairs, parachutes, and bullet-proof vests. The forcible silking of spiders gave rise to various contraptions whereby spiders would be immobilized and stimulated to produce extrusions 52 times finer and “nearly three times stronger, more elastic, and more durable than the moth’s.” Prasad reports much scientific interest in producing synthetic spider silk proteins that could offer a “biodegradable antidote to plastic”; thus far, it has been a daunting challenge. The book is generously illustrated with scientific drawings and photos.

A colorful, wholly absorbing narrative tapestry.

Kirkus Reviews