THE FABRIC OF CIVILIZATION: How Textiles Made the World

Virginia Postrel

Hachette Book Group, Inc., New York, USA

Year 2020

Pages 249

This enthralling and educational guide explores the global history of textiles from Paleolithic flax to 3D knitting and the world they weave together. 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 this book, the author 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.