The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American MythUsing objects that Americans have saved through the centuries and stories they have passed along, as well as histories teased from documents, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich chronicles the production of cloth--and of history--in early America. Under the singular and brilliant lens that Ulrich brings to this study, ordinary household goods--Indian baskets, spinning wheels, a chimneypiece, a cupboard, a niddy-noddy, bed coverings, silk embroidery, a pocketbook, a linen tablecloth, a coverlet and a rose blanket, and an unfinished stocking--provide the key to a transformed understanding of cultural encounter, frontier war, Revolutionary politics, international commerce, and early industrialization in America. We discover how ideas about cloth and clothing affected relations between English settlers and their Algonkian neighbors. We see how an English production system based on a clear division of labor--men doing the weaving and women the spinning--broke down in the colonial setting, becoming first marginalized, then feminized, then politicized, and how the new system both prepared the way for and was sustained by machine-powered spinning. Pulling these divergent threads together into a rich and revealing tapestry of --the age of homespun, --Ulrich demonstrates how ordinary objects reveal larger economic and social structures, and, in particular, how early Americans and their descendants made, used, sold, and saved textiles in order to assert identities, shape relationships, and create history. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - japaul22 - LibraryThingLaurel Thatcher Ulrich is one of my favorite nonfiction authors. Her writing often attempts to illuminate the every day lives of those living in the Northeast region of early America, and this book ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - nedoba - LibraryThingAn enjoyable read. Fascinating artifacts and incredible research behind the stories. Almost every chapter includes something about local Natives! Finally, someone has written Native People back into American History. On a scale of 1-10 she gets a 12 in book book. Read full review
Contents
Prologue | 3 |
An Indian Basket | 41 |
Two Spinning Wheels in an Old Log House | 75 |
Copyright | |
10 other sections not shown
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Common terms and phrases
American appear basket began Betty blankets Boston Bourne called century chest cloth Collections colonial Connecticut cotton County Court cupboard daughter death described diary early embroidery England English fabric father female flax four gave girls Hampshire hand Hannah Historical Society History homespun household hundred husband Indian industry inventory John labor land later less letters linen listed lived London loom Maine makers manufacturing March married Mary Mass Massachusetts Memorial Molly mother Museum North period person pounds Press production Providence Records reported returned Rhode Island rose rural Samuel Sarah shillings shows silk sister spinning wheels spun stockings story textiles thread took town turned Univ Vermont weavers weaving weeks wheel wife woman women woods wool writers wrote yards yarn York young
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth A Vintage Book |
| Authors | Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Three-Hundredth Anniversary University Professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf, 2001 |
| Original from | the University of Virginia |
| Digitized | Sep 5, 2007 |
| ISBN | 0679445943, 9780679445944 |
| Length | 501 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / United States / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |