Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by thepurplebookwyrm
The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World by Virginia Postrel
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
The Fabric of Civilization works as a decent introductory overview to the topic of the history of textiles; their production, trade, consumption and cultural significance in terms of technology.
And as an 'introductory overview', it will probably leave you wanting in some places like it did me – unless you have a truly casual interest in the subject. I personally think it could easily have benefitted from an additional 50 pages or so – even as an introductory overview – given the way the author favoured certain aspects of the topic over others. I would've appreciated greater focus on textile fibres that weren't cotton or silk, or greater focuse on textile techniques that weren't weaving.
This book also desperately needed better illustrations or diagrams (or even links to, I don't know, YouTube videos) explaining the mechanics of weaving, or even knitting. I have dabbled in weaving before, I'm a good visual thinker but all of that was explained through text and I really struggled to picture things correctly.
I also think there was something missing, here, in terms of broader anthropological and sociological analysis. Maybe that's just because my favourite kind of non-fiction, at this point, tends to be on the more academic, and ideally multidisciplinary side of things, and this book didn't exactly fit that template. There was also a certain lack of... critical thinking, I suppose, when it came to 'neoliberal consumerism' as a phenomenon – maybe (I'm willing to concede that may've simply been me reading too much into the author's tone and focus).
Still, I enjoyed reading this work of non-fiction. It was informative and (mostly) kept me engaged throughout, and I'm happy to keep it in my non-fiction library as a decent reference.
And as an 'introductory overview', it will probably leave you wanting in some places like it did me – unless you have a truly casual interest in the subject. I personally think it could easily have benefitted from an additional 50 pages or so – even as an introductory overview – given the way the author favoured certain aspects of the topic over others. I would've appreciated greater focus on textile fibres that weren't cotton or silk, or greater focuse on textile techniques that weren't weaving.
This book also desperately needed better illustrations or diagrams (or even links to, I don't know, YouTube videos) explaining the mechanics of weaving, or even knitting. I have dabbled in weaving before, I'm a good visual thinker but all of that was explained through text and I really struggled to picture things correctly.
I also think there was something missing, here, in terms of broader anthropological and sociological analysis. Maybe that's just because my favourite kind of non-fiction, at this point, tends to be on the more academic, and ideally multidisciplinary side of things, and this book didn't exactly fit that template. There was also a certain lack of... critical thinking, I suppose, when it came to 'neoliberal consumerism' as a phenomenon – maybe (I'm willing to concede that may've simply been me reading too much into the author's tone and focus).
Still, I enjoyed reading this work of non-fiction. It was informative and (mostly) kept me engaged throughout, and I'm happy to keep it in my non-fiction library as a decent reference.