Craft cover art

Craft

An American History

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Bloomsbury presents Craft by Glenn Adamson, read by Rhett Samuel Price.

A groundbreaking and endlessly surprising history of how artisans created America, from the nation’s origins to the present day.

At the center of the United States’ economic and social development, according to conventional wisdom, are industry and technology—while craftspeople and handmade objects are relegated to a bygone past. Renowned historian Glenn Adamson turns that narrative on its head in this innovative account, revealing makers’ central role in shaping America’s identity. Examine any phase of the nation’s struggle to define itself, and artisans are there—from the silversmith Paul Revere and the revolutionary carpenters and blacksmiths who hurled tea into Boston Harbor, to today’s “maker movement.” From Mother Jones to Rosie the Riveter. From Betsy Ross to Rosa Parks. From suffrage banners to the AIDS Quilt.

Adamson shows that craft has long been implicated in debates around equality, education, and class. Artisanship has often been a site of resistance for oppressed people, such as enslaved African-Americans whose skilled labor might confer hard-won agency under bondage, or the Native American makers who adapted traditional arts into statements of modernity. Theirs are among the array of memorable portraits of Americans both celebrated and unfamiliar in this richly peopled book. As Adamson argues, these artisans’ stories speak to our collective striving toward a more perfect union. From the beginning, America had to be—and still remains to be—crafted.©2021 Glenn Adamson (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Americas Art United States Equality American History Capitalism
All stars
Most relevant
This was a revelation to me .
I am British living in Scotland and with a lifelong interest in crafts , especially women’s work and folk art .
This wonderful book has taught me so much about the social context of crafts skills from Blacksmithing to yarn bombing across the centuries and all across the continent of America .
I recommend it very highly

Superb

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