The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World

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Virginia Postrel
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From Paleolithic flax to 3D knitting, a global history of textiles and the world they made 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 C...

From Paleolithic flax to 3D knitting, a global history of textiles and the world they made
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.

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Number of Pages: 320

ISBN: 1541617606

ISBN-13: 9781541617605

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Matt Ridley 2y

A fascinating, surprising and beautifully written history of technology, economics, and culture, told through the thread of textiles, humanity's most indispensable artefacts. I loved it.

Greg Lukianoff 1y

My September book award goes to the masterpiece by @vpostrel The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World [link] It is filled with so much history & so many stories I'd never seen in any other book. A book to be joyfully read & re-read.