squeecker's review against another edition
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.25
Informative and thorough look at the history of textiles. The author investigated the development of dying, how fibers were and are grown and harvested or created. They followed the developments in science, culture and economics to show how so much they influenced textiles and were influenced by textiles.
Interesting and thought provoking!
Interesting and thought provoking!
maddyb001's review
3.0
Decent overview. More focused on the aspects of the textile industry than the impact of textiles on history.
relright's review against another edition
4.0
This book is really solid for the nonfiction genre. It has a lot of stories and examples from ancient days to modern days regarding the history, technological advances, and societal impact surrounding textiles. It also immerses you immediately into rethinking your relationship with textiles at the beginning of the book by reminding you that they are so integral to our lives that it is easy to dismiss them as mundane. From textiles as an early currency, the effect on human migration by choice or by enslavement, how modern coding relates to the development of machine weaving, chemical processes that developed from dying, etc. It hits many global cultures in this anthology as well. Only weakness is common for the genre: sometimes gets confusing/tedious when getting overly technical but not a big deal because of its other weakness that the story jumps around a lot. But again I say four stars, strong book. If you like Mary roach books this is in that vein then I recommend
cozyscarf's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
ryzar's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
An excellent look at the history of fabric and just how deeply entwined it is with the history of Humanity. Virginia Postrel takes us from the evolution of cotton well before mankind to the development of the first fabrics in prehistory and further on to the development of markets for cloth that would eventually drive innovation and development in everything from transportation, dyeing, chemistry, and economics. Then Postrel looks into the latest research and development of textiles and the many challenges the researchers are hoping to overcome everything from clothes that charge your phone to fabrics that dont need to be washed. A great book that will teach you much about the history of fabric and a little about so much more than that.