Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World

by Giorgio Riello

Today's world textile and garment trade is valued at a staggering $425 billion. We are told that under the pressure of increasing globalisation, it is India and China that are the new world manufacturing powerhouses. However, this is not a new phenomenon: until the industrial revolution, Asia manufactured great quantities of colourful printed cottons that were sold to places as far afield as Japan, West Africa and Europe. Cotton explores this earlier globalised economy and its transformation after 1750 as cotton led the way in the industrialisation of Europe. By the early nineteenth century, India, China and the Ottoman Empire switched from world producers to buyers of European cotton textiles, a position that they retained for over two hundred years. This is a fascinating and insightful story which ranges from Asian and European technologies and African slavery to cotton plantations in the Americas and consumer desires across the globe.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Fashion, Economics

437 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2013

About the author

Giorgio Riello is chair of early modern global history at the European University Institute in Florence and professor of global history and culture at the University of Warwick, UK. He has written on early modern textiles, dress and fashion in Europe and Asia.

Reviews

[Karen·]

What this is not:

It is not a history of a commodity called cotton. A single commodity called cotton hardly exists: it exists as the raw fibre, as yarn, as unprinted white cloth, as printed cloth. This history follows growing, production, printing and consumption.

It is not a triumphalist narrative of the astounding creativity and technological superiority of a northern region of an off-shore island of continental Europe. It looks at the world to try to explain what happened in Lancashire, not at Lancashire as the motor of change in the world.

It is not written in heavy, dense, 'academic' language. Once, just once, Riello quotes a colleague whose English is such that he has to translate it for us. As if he wants to point out the contrast between his clear, readable style and the muddy:

According to Lotika Varadarajan, cottons were exchanged 'within a cultural matrix in which the semiotics of the object traded provided it with a value which could not at all times be expressed in the terms of the price paid'. What she means is that consumption was not so much an act of individual satisfaction or fashionable behaviour: rather, the use of a piece of cloth could be symbolic of wider social principles linking the individual to community, state and religion.

What this is:

It is beautifully produced: gorgeously illustrated, well endowed with helpful charts, diagrams, maps, notes, bibliography and index.

It is exemplary in its structure. Three main well-defined parts that move forward through time, an introduction that sets out the main argument, a summary at the end of each chapter and a summing up of the argument at the end.

It is expensive. But worth every Eurocent.

[Suniru · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, an interesting read. The author has used cotton and cotton fabric to illustrate a period of global modernization. I was a little disappointed that, as the title might suggest, the book was not a history of the commodity. Cotton was the vehicle used to detail an economic history.  I did enjoy the very Indo-Anglo centric story of trade and colonization and the many fascinating stories about fabric. My favorite was that much information concerning  fabrics worn by the lower classes in the 1740's was obtained from a book containing samples of clothing from infants left in an London orphanage. Another interesting observation made is that the more connected the world becomes the more disparity between the rich and poor. ..an observation with present day pertinence. The author does a fine job of staying on topic, but I did find the writing, beginning with the preface, to be exhaustive. Elizabeth Gaskell's novel North and South has been on my to- be-read list for years. I am bumping it up near the top after reading Cotton!

[Esko · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you would have told 13-year-old me that I would be reading a book about the history of cotton as an assignment for university I would have probably steered towards a different career.

But luckily 13-year-old me doesn't know a thing. A surprisingly interesting book and it's actually not a history of cotton, more like a history of manufacturing and industrialization from a viewpoint of cotton.

I've got a whole new perspective on industrialization thanks to this book but at times I noticed the author was repeating themselves. Also some parts of the book were less interesting than others. The part on slavery and the third part of the book overall was excellently written though!

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this sort of book - it takes one theme and follows it's journey in history throughout the world.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

originally requested this via NetGalley, years and years ago when I was just starting with microhistories. Didn't get to the digital ARC, so got a physical copy via ILL from Whitworth University.

This is more academic than I was looking for. No shade to the book, I'm just not the right reader for this right now. Casual readers more interested in the topic will get along fine. It's not a sit-back-and-relax reading experience, and note-taking may be required, or at least some sticky notes.

[Martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for an assignment but pretty interesting. Some chapters more than others but on the whole enjoyed it.