What is the effect of technology on textiles? How did particular historical periods and locations expand or limit the possibilities for the manufacture of fabrics? How is textile history related to politics and economics, sociology and psychology, art and engineering, anthropology and archaeology, chemistry and physics? Addressing these questions, the author surveys the development of the technical components of fabrics and discusses the textiles of selected places and times. She uses prose, drawings, and more than 130 photographs to show how each era of textile production reflects its age-how the material, structure, and design of fabrics relate to contemporary social, economic, and artistic concepts.

 

This book is designed to serve as a college text and as a reference work for museum researchers. Each chapter includes an extensive bibliographic essay