Silk, the Thread that Tied the World is a fascinating look at silk as a material and its place in human history written by historian Anthony Burton. Due out 26th Jan 2022 from Pen & Sword, it's 188 pages and will be available in hardcover and paperback formats.

I've enjoyed a very long relationship with fibrearts in general and especially the textile arts. I knit, weave, spin, crochet, quilt, sew, do kumihimo, tablet weaving, tatting, bobbin lace, and others. Silk is the queen of the fibres and elevates the quality of almost every fibre with which it's blended. Most of my encounters with silk have been up close in the form of the miles of yarn which have wound through my fingers to keep my family warm and/or clothed.

This is a more academic and historical look at silk - how it's made, how it's prepared, and the myriad ways it's used in utilitarian and decorative ways. The author writes clearly and accessibly. The timeline moves from the ancient world (Pliny had a lot of eyebrow raising things to say about silk) to the modern, making stops along the way to trace the trade routes, equipment, and technology used to farm, process, and move goods from one area of the world to others. This is not an academic treatise, and as such there are no chapter annotations. There is a very abbreviated bibliography for further reading, as well as a cross referenced index.

It's an interesting if somewhat superficial history. I also felt the lack of annotations and a more complete bibliography. The illustrations throughout the book add a lot to the read and I found them illuminating and fascinating.This would be a good public or school library book as well as possibly of interest to readers interested in the history of technology and trade or fibrearts.

Three and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

3/5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for providing this e-arc!

Book review on youtube coming soon about this fascinating book but god damn!!

Silk, the Thread that Tied the World by Anthony Burton is a nonfiction book currently scheduled for release on November 30 2021. Over a thousand years ago the Chinese discovered that the slender filaments that formed the cocoon of the silk moth, could be woven into beautiful shimmering fabrics. For centuries they were able to keep the process a secret, but eventually started to trade the valuable cloth with the west, along the silk road. Silk was a luxury item that bestowed prestige, so it was inevitable that the wealthy wanted there silks to be as elaborate as possible, beautiful designs were produced in the Islamic world and gradually a European industry developed. In the 19th century mechanization of the time consuming hand weaving process, had resulted in products being produced using the Jacquard loom, which used punched cards to create a pattern. Silk remains the most beautiful woven material in the world, moving from its origins in ancient China to help transform the whole world.

Silk, the Thread that Tied the World is a well researched and written book that taught me quite a bot about a topic I have never thought to explore before. I thought the history of the industry was interesting to read, and the descriptions and chosen images were nicely matched. I thought the writing was accessible and generally easy to follow. I will admit to getting bogged down in some of the more technical explanations, such as the innovations and functionality of the looms. I might have also liked to see a more extensive bibliography or suggestions for further reading on this topic and related subjects, as I enjoy follow done the rabbit whole in researching subjects once my interest in piqued on a topic. However, as a whole I enjoyed the read and learned quite a bit. I think those interested in the subject will not want to miss this read, and other will learn a great deal and enjoy the read as well.

Having always been interested in the history and romance of the Silk Route I found this book fascinating with it’s detailed history of silk, how it was discovered and made and it’s influence and value as a global commodity. There is a lot of technical detail which some readers may find tedious but I felt it was an essential element to the whole story of the silk process. Highly recommended for historians and fashionistas alike.

A delightful meeting of history, fashion, and technology.

As someone who enjoys fiber craft and creating clothing, I fully understand the hobby craft comes at the end of a very long process of technological development to make my trip to the craft store and my home assembly of clothes a recreational activity rather than a necessity. Since I'm also a hungry consumer of knowledge, this book scratches the itch to know more about one of the most storied natural fibers worked by humankind.

Silk carries so much with it - lore, morality, history, luxury - but what I found most interesting in this book was how closely tied the millennia of silk trading and development is to some of the technologies in daily use today. For example, the use of our current numeric system and its ties to the silk trade.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of technology, chemistry, fashion, textiles, or even business and trade. It supports its thesis well - silk really did tie the world together.

This is a great historical book which I felt was very well written and amazingly kept me hooked on the history of silk. This is not something I would normally read but I found it fascinating

3/5 Thank you Net Galley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A good, seemingly all around background on silk, the silk industry, and the Silk Road. It starts right from the Chinese legend of how silk was discovered and moves through the ages to the present; including the attempts to create artificial silk and milking spiders for their silk.

At times it got a little bogged down with a level of detail that detracted from the flow of the silk story:
the Silk Road section which was describing the commerce and intellectual exchanges that occurred described details on how to make paper, the formula for gunpowder, how to do math with Roman Numerals, India’s institution of the numeral zero and the West’s reluctance to use it, Newton’s equations and how to calculate the depth of a well, and the Zoroastrian religion’s treatment of their dead. These are interesting facts, but they really have little to do with the silk story other than the trade of information via the Silk Road. Many readers would wonder why these specifics were included.

The descriptions of the parts of a loom, how they supposedly worked, and advancements made were not very clear. Having no background in weaving, I found that I could not follow the information and just skimmed through it.

Overall, definitely worth a read if you are interested in silk and its history.

I would put it somewhere between a strong 3.5 and a weak 4.

There is so much in this book that was interesting and new to me. It takes you from the beginning, in the area of the legend of where silk came from, through the silk road as it moved through India into Italy, France, England and into the Americas. It looks at how silk touched the lives of your every day person to the famous like Louis Pasture. The photos inside are beautiful.

Where it can fall short to me is, in the beginning, when it was describing how the silk looms worked and were changing, just because it was hard for me to see in my head how the machines would have moved not really having seen a loom in action. Then later when scientists were trying to create an artificial silk. The process is fascinating and I was interested, but the jargon was a tad jarring from everything that came before.

In the whole, if it is a topic that interests you from a historical, or material cultural aspect, I found myself sharing facts from it with friends, so I think it's worth reading. Thank you to NetGalley and Pen&Sword for this Advance Reading Copy.

An informative read about the silk: the material, the silk trade and its influence on the world.

It gives a detailed description of the technicalities of the manufacturing process, how looms developed through many years, what silk manufacturing workshops looked like.

I liked the parts about the historical background, the Silk Road and the role the silk played in the transformation of fashion, but in general there were too many technical details on machines and steps of the manufacturing process, and I have slowly become bored of the second half of the book.

I am thankful for NetGalley and Pen&Sword for this Advance Reading Copy.

This is a useful book, and gives a vital overview of the history of silk as well as more modern artificial fibers that were created in imitation of it. Although I would recommend the book to anyone with an interest in history of design, material culture, and/or the textile industry, it still has some frustrating limitations. I would have liked to see more attractive images that better demonstrate the expressive range and fine craftsmanship at work in the world's finest silk pieces. I would have also liked to see more attention given to some of the historical impact of silk, rayon, lycra etc., as the book does an excellent job of demonstrating how these textiles were themselves shaped by historical and geopolitical forces but only gives passing mention to the impact of these textiles as technologies with military and scientific uses. I also wonder what this book would have been like if Asia was not simply bookending things (as both the original point of silk and a future horizon for technological development), but as a consistent presence throughout the history that this book presents.

Anthony Burton’s scholarly book tells the history of silk from its discovery, through to its cultivation and spread throughout the would via the legendary “Silk Road”, its heyday in the 17th and 18th centuries and its future as the “Queen of fabrics”. Fully illustrated with vintage drawings, maps and modern colour photographs, this book is immensely readable.
Burton digs deep into the techniques of silk weaving which gets quite technical at times; meticulous research has gone into this book, but a glossary of terminology is included for the uninitiated. He also explores the invention of paper and other innovations, including gunpowder, that became staples of trade along the silk routes. It was also a pipeline for emergent religion such as Zoroastrianism and Buddhism.
The story of silk is well known, but its future less so as big clothes stores stop selling it due to the destructive means of its manufacture. One day it may go the way of fur and fall entirely out of favour, but there’s no denying the allure and richness of its history. I love any book about the history of silk and the period of history when it was first discovered, and this book didn’t disappoint. Pen & Sword titles are consistently excellent and Anthony Burton’s book was a joy to read.

Thanks to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for allowing me to view an advanced reading copy of this title.

Anthony Burton has written a highly comprehensive history of silk and it’s development and progress around the world over several centuries. The first part of the book contextualises “silk”within the Silk Road and the routes of commerce and communication. Peter Frankopan’s history of the Silk Roads would be an ideal follow up for a greater depth exploration of these early “super highways”. But it is when Anthony Burton starts to focus in depth on the manufacturing and expansion of the silk trade from China to Iran and then into mainland Europe and finally England and America that the book really begins to intrigue and fascinate. The attention to detail regarding the creative and construction process and the I’ve towards of more and more automation is fascinating. Our world of disposable clothing and fabrics is a sharp contrast to the value and pride given to silk over many centuries . If you work in the textile trade , have a fascination towards fashion and design or simply enjoy understanding more about the evolution of a beautiful commodity then this book will be worth exploring.