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Reviews tagging 'Slavery'
The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Clair
3 reviews
spacekee's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Slavery
aceofknives's review against another edition
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Classism, Racism, Racial slurs, Body horror, Sexism, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Slavery, and Antisemitism
Moderate: Vomit, Cultural appropriation, Xenophobia, and War
This is a great overview of some of the important ways cloth, spinning, and fashion have influenced culture from the bringing of humanity. It deals with some heavy topics in an academic and explanatory way. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in fashion history or textiles. The author carefully navigates cultural many times and places and points out a long history of misogony, racism, and exploration that in seperable from the story of cloth. There is also some pretty gross content like how astronauts don't use a restroom. There is a candle made of human fat so be ready for that.foxo_cube's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
relaxing
fast-paced
3.5
A nice book, probably best for reading casually or dipping in and out of (I sit and read loads at once, which didn't detract from the experience, but it had that sort of feel to it). I'd probably rate it more like 3.5, but I'll round up.
The book is split into sections based on cultures/time periods, more or less, and collate a few stories within them. It doesn't delve terribly deep, so if you're extra knowledgeable about textile history, you'd probably know a good deal of it, and it has a tendency to repeat itself occasionally on basic points (hence why I think it's sort of written to be dipped into instead of binge-read), but there's some really interesting stuff in there. It's certainly given me some more things to read more into, and I like that sort of thing.
The writing itself is pleasant to read, and uses fabric-related turns of phrase often, which was pretty cute. I would recommend it to anyone with some interest in the subject matter, either as a jumping point for further reading if you're inclined that way, or just to learn a little more about some of the more notable historical uses and methods of textiles and textile creation.
The book is split into sections based on cultures/time periods, more or less, and collate a few stories within them. It doesn't delve terribly deep, so if you're extra knowledgeable about textile history, you'd probably know a good deal of it, and it has a tendency to repeat itself occasionally on basic points (hence why I think it's sort of written to be dipped into instead of binge-read), but there's some really interesting stuff in there. It's certainly given me some more things to read more into, and I like that sort of thing.
The writing itself is pleasant to read, and uses fabric-related turns of phrase often, which was pretty cute. I would recommend it to anyone with some interest in the subject matter, either as a jumping point for further reading if you're inclined that way, or just to learn a little more about some of the more notable historical uses and methods of textiles and textile creation.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Colonisation and Slavery
Minor: Misogyny, Classism, and War
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