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Rummage
Rummage tells the overlooked story of our throwaway past. Emily Cockayne extracts glittering gems from the rubbish pile of centuries past and introduces us to the visionaries, crooks and everyday do-gooders who have shaped the material world we live in today - like the fancy ladies of the First World War who turned dog hair into yarn, or the Victorian gentlemen selling pianofortes made from papier-m�ch�, or the hapless public servants coaxing people into giving up their railings for the greater good.
In this original and fascinating new history, Cockayne illuminates our relationship to our rubbish: from the simple question of how we reuse and recycle things (and which is better), to all the weird and wonderful ways it's been done in the past. She exposes the hidden work (often done by women) that has gone into shaping the world for each future generation, and she shows what lessons can be drawn from the past to address urgent questions of our waste today.
In this original and fascinating new history, Cockayne illuminates our relationship to our rubbish: from the simple question of how we reuse and recycle things (and which is better), to all the weird and wonderful ways it's been done in the past. She exposes the hidden work (often done by women) that has gone into shaping the world for each future generation, and she shows what lessons can be drawn from the past to address urgent questions of our waste today.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published July 9, 2020
15 people are currently reading
385 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 18, 2021
I was given this book for Christmas and immediately found the dust jacket appealing. Once I began reading, I found 'Rummage' an interesting combination of anecdotal and academic history. The author is a historian who writes in an entertaining yet rigorous style on a sprawling topic. Unusually, the book proceeds backwards in time from the 20th century to the 16th. Cockayne uses this structure well. I particularly liked the chapters on the mid-19th century, which focused on how many new inventions resulted from reuse of industrial effluents. The pleasant names of these novel products (e.g. bois durci) concealed their ingredients (blood and sawdust).
Cockayne writes with nuance and insight on how the reuse, remanufacture, and disposal of waste evolved in Britain over the centuries. She deliberately dismantles contemporary over-generalisations about the past, while also discussing assumptions and misconceptions of the time. Early chapters explain how drives for thrift and reuse during the first and second world wars had inconsistent results, both across the country and between types of materials. The rationales for reusing or recycling materials have varied considerably over time, as have the materials involved. I liked the discussion of how ornamentation from churches was repurposed after the Reformation. Another delightful detail was the demand for waste paper to wrap groceries, especially cheese, to the point that ledgers and other books were sometimes stolen for this purpose. As the industrial revolution proceeded, the range of (often noxious) wastes expanded and the ingenuity of their reuse did likewise.
I found the international dimension intriguing. Britain has exported and imported waste of various kinds for centuries, which surprised me. Germany apparently has a much more consistent history of material thrift and systematic reuse, profiting from Britain's ineffectual waste-handling at various points. Certainly, the 21st century pattern of Britain exporting waste to become someone else's problem is not new. The book has little to say about current challenges for waste reuse and recycling, but it doesn't need to comment as learning about the history of the subject inevitably sheds light on the present. It certainly seems ironic now that early plastics were made by recycling 'cotton wastes or paper fibres dissolved in acids and solvents'. Also notable is that combining artificial and natural fibres proved disastrous for rag recycling.
'Rummage' is a material history first and a cultural history second. The combination proves engaging, idiosyncratic, and ultimately fascinating. It would read well with Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First. Finally, I found the section headings pretty hilarious. My favourite has to be 'Stinkle stinkle little tar'.
Cockayne writes with nuance and insight on how the reuse, remanufacture, and disposal of waste evolved in Britain over the centuries. She deliberately dismantles contemporary over-generalisations about the past, while also discussing assumptions and misconceptions of the time. Early chapters explain how drives for thrift and reuse during the first and second world wars had inconsistent results, both across the country and between types of materials. The rationales for reusing or recycling materials have varied considerably over time, as have the materials involved. I liked the discussion of how ornamentation from churches was repurposed after the Reformation. Another delightful detail was the demand for waste paper to wrap groceries, especially cheese, to the point that ledgers and other books were sometimes stolen for this purpose. As the industrial revolution proceeded, the range of (often noxious) wastes expanded and the ingenuity of their reuse did likewise.
I found the international dimension intriguing. Britain has exported and imported waste of various kinds for centuries, which surprised me. Germany apparently has a much more consistent history of material thrift and systematic reuse, profiting from Britain's ineffectual waste-handling at various points. Certainly, the 21st century pattern of Britain exporting waste to become someone else's problem is not new. The book has little to say about current challenges for waste reuse and recycling, but it doesn't need to comment as learning about the history of the subject inevitably sheds light on the present. It certainly seems ironic now that early plastics were made by recycling 'cotton wastes or paper fibres dissolved in acids and solvents'. Also notable is that combining artificial and natural fibres proved disastrous for rag recycling.
'Rummage' is a material history first and a cultural history second. The combination proves engaging, idiosyncratic, and ultimately fascinating. It would read well with Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First. Finally, I found the section headings pretty hilarious. My favourite has to be 'Stinkle stinkle little tar'.
June 21, 2022
This detailed and sweeping look at the re-use of everything from dog hair and ivory to coal tar waste and metal battleships has clearly been written by a person with dedication to the topic. The author frequently shows us photos from her own collection; a book made of rag paper, bound in wood from a sunken ship. The reader can find it dry and hard to return to, but upon picking up the book again, will discover fascinating facts.
Throughout the history, the author points to the dedication of women at the work of collecting, sorting, recycling and remaking. Primary production like forestry, mining, hunting, was done by men; manufacture could be done by men (ships) or women (hats) but picking, sweeping and remaking was cheap labour, for which convicts, women and children were generally used. Especially if the government could get it done for free, such as ordering housewives to save paper and metal during wartime.
Speaking of wars, Germany is shown to have been continually ahead in recycling and remanufacturing from waste, so that Britain did not realise how far ahead Germany was during either world war, and how long its goods supplies could be made to last.
Notes p.289. Index p.373. I read this book from the RDS Library. This is an unbiased review.
Throughout the history, the author points to the dedication of women at the work of collecting, sorting, recycling and remaking. Primary production like forestry, mining, hunting, was done by men; manufacture could be done by men (ships) or women (hats) but picking, sweeping and remaking was cheap labour, for which convicts, women and children were generally used. Especially if the government could get it done for free, such as ordering housewives to save paper and metal during wartime.
Speaking of wars, Germany is shown to have been continually ahead in recycling and remanufacturing from waste, so that Britain did not realise how far ahead Germany was during either world war, and how long its goods supplies could be made to last.
Notes p.289. Index p.373. I read this book from the RDS Library. This is an unbiased review.
October 18, 2021
There were so many details and stories that as a reader I struggled to see the big picture. The conclusive chapter was quite good though. Overall pretty disappointed as I feel like I could have learned more with a different structure and approach to the topic.
May 30, 2020
Well it's fair to say this book recycled my childhood for me. From remembering The Wombles, and those sticky labels the Friends of the Earth sold at great expense so you could redirect and reuse an envelope, to the very nature of the humble jumble sale (which date from the 1880s and not the 1980s, which is closer to my youth I'll have you know), we see the whole history of reuse and recycling. "There's brass in muck" some people were told, and this book, that aims to do what Mary Roach did for cadavers, gives us lots of different windows into how junk was stopped from being junked throughout history.
It's clearly a book with a singular subject, then, although it does go about things in what is slightly too individual a manner, being in reverse chronology. So, not concerning itself with upscaling furniture or so on, we start at the dawn of the current century. Apparently, observant housewives, seeing all the trash they'd separated and sorted for the War Effort in London in the 1940s, were aghast at seeing it all end up in the one single compartment on the back of the collectors' wagon. I know their pain – the brown, green and white sections of the bottle banks I know of the most, all went, right in front of me, into the one unsegregated lorry. But then there has always been a bit of the worthy failure about bottle banks, as we see here.
The book shows the author's skill at gathering information (from social history to the eye-opening source of early Victorian plastics and artificial dyes) – if not quite her talent at editing (the commercial shenanigans of the people in this chapter are far too extensive). And that would be what makes the book a bit off what I thought to expect. It's too often a history of production and re-production, and not the sociology I thought we'd get. The history of turning horses into glue, of turning this effluent into this, and that into that – they're all here but it's a bit too science-y for my tastes, when the more recent chapters, when we had verbatim documentation of attitudes to domestic recycling, were more fun.
So, no "Stiff", but a heck of a lot of stuff to enjoy and learn about – and that's not just to mean the thick woven cloth by that name. For me this was three and a half stars, but for the right reader it's going to be a wonderful purchase. Used, of course.
It's clearly a book with a singular subject, then, although it does go about things in what is slightly too individual a manner, being in reverse chronology. So, not concerning itself with upscaling furniture or so on, we start at the dawn of the current century. Apparently, observant housewives, seeing all the trash they'd separated and sorted for the War Effort in London in the 1940s, were aghast at seeing it all end up in the one single compartment on the back of the collectors' wagon. I know their pain – the brown, green and white sections of the bottle banks I know of the most, all went, right in front of me, into the one unsegregated lorry. But then there has always been a bit of the worthy failure about bottle banks, as we see here.
The book shows the author's skill at gathering information (from social history to the eye-opening source of early Victorian plastics and artificial dyes) – if not quite her talent at editing (the commercial shenanigans of the people in this chapter are far too extensive). And that would be what makes the book a bit off what I thought to expect. It's too often a history of production and re-production, and not the sociology I thought we'd get. The history of turning horses into glue, of turning this effluent into this, and that into that – they're all here but it's a bit too science-y for my tastes, when the more recent chapters, when we had verbatim documentation of attitudes to domestic recycling, were more fun.
So, no "Stiff", but a heck of a lot of stuff to enjoy and learn about – and that's not just to mean the thick woven cloth by that name. For me this was three and a half stars, but for the right reader it's going to be a wonderful purchase. Used, of course.
May 6, 2020
Thank you to the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.
I think I was expecting more about domestic reuse in this book, but it makes sense that this is difficult to research and trace given that most historical reuse was done by women with no written records. This well-researched book focuses instead mainly on industrial reuse through the centuries, and why certain large historical events precipitated them (particularly wars). There is some description of domestic recycling and reuse, particularly within living memory, and this was always interesting.
The book traces the history of reuse backwards in time, which was an interesting decision and which mainly works well, although there is some inevitable repetition and crossover of time periods. The inclusion of photographs of some reused and repurposed items was really helpful and brought them to life.
The conclusion that since early modern periods we (the British) have been intermittent reusers and recyclers is an interesting one, and Cockayne is quite scathing of some modern attempts to be thrifty and recycle things (particularly in the introduction). If you are looking for a practical history book showing how our foremothers reused, this is possibly not the book for you, but if you are interested in the history of recycling and reuse, particularly in the industrial world, you will find this invaluable.
I think I was expecting more about domestic reuse in this book, but it makes sense that this is difficult to research and trace given that most historical reuse was done by women with no written records. This well-researched book focuses instead mainly on industrial reuse through the centuries, and why certain large historical events precipitated them (particularly wars). There is some description of domestic recycling and reuse, particularly within living memory, and this was always interesting.
The book traces the history of reuse backwards in time, which was an interesting decision and which mainly works well, although there is some inevitable repetition and crossover of time periods. The inclusion of photographs of some reused and repurposed items was really helpful and brought them to life.
The conclusion that since early modern periods we (the British) have been intermittent reusers and recyclers is an interesting one, and Cockayne is quite scathing of some modern attempts to be thrifty and recycle things (particularly in the introduction). If you are looking for a practical history book showing how our foremothers reused, this is possibly not the book for you, but if you are interested in the history of recycling and reuse, particularly in the industrial world, you will find this invaluable.
August 14, 2022
Its a fascinating and very readable book once you make it past the first two chapters. Im not sure WHY it felt so uninteresting and dull before then but it felt stilted, as if written by a model train enthusiast describing how utterly fascinating the story of the Mark IV is . . . .after the first two chapters it becomes more interesting in an enthusiastic accountant sort of way: a bit too involved in the weeds at times but overall quite interesting. One frustration is not the authors fault but rather one of circumstance as the author mentions items of the era that one simply MUST look up in order to understand the reference but *visible confusion* Google simply shrugs "Dunno" at . . . .What on earth is a 'cudgaree pot' and what is ' ivory jelly used to treat diabetics'.
An interesting and very informative read that needs someone to open the curtains on to brighten up the style of writing.
An interesting and very informative read that needs someone to open the curtains on to brighten up the style of writing.
February 10, 2021
This book is crammed full of so much fascinating information, Cockayne has left no stone unturned! It covered areas I would never have thought as related to recycling and materials I didn't know existed (like fishskin leather and bois durci - who would have thought people have made pianos from waste blood!).
Because her research is so extensive it slows the pace slightly, but it's great she included the extra stories of fires, lost ships etc that changed history in little ways.
All the important documents wrapped around cheese and dogs that were combed for wool show the failures and drawbacks of recycling and reuse too.
Some really excellent points about how we view and have viewed waste and resources, that have made me think. It would make a great history TV series, especially if it addressed recycling now, which is much misunderstood. But a shame about the poor Womble!
Because her research is so extensive it slows the pace slightly, but it's great she included the extra stories of fires, lost ships etc that changed history in little ways.
All the important documents wrapped around cheese and dogs that were combed for wool show the failures and drawbacks of recycling and reuse too.
Some really excellent points about how we view and have viewed waste and resources, that have made me think. It would make a great history TV series, especially if it addressed recycling now, which is much misunderstood. But a shame about the poor Womble!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 11, 2020
The topic was fascinating, however I found the layout of the book to be hard to follow. There were so many footnotes and anecdotes and thoughts thrown in that I found myself confused and not able to enjoy reading Rummage. It wasn't really what I was expecting. I thought this would be more of an easier read and chapterized items and their use/how to recycle them.
A case of it's me and not the book.
A case of it's me and not the book.
February 1, 2021
A ragbag of interesting facts about re-use and recycling. In the final section Emily Cockayne explains that, "recycling presents no linear history of improvement... nor a straightforward decline, but instead on that pings and pongs stickily like an over-naphthaed rubber ball" The style of the book matches this. It might have been helpful to have an introduction explaining that. The use of puns and word play is often amusing and effective.
July 13, 2020
I was attracted by the title and the unusual title and I can say it was a fascinating and informative read.
A lot of anecdotes, facts and explanations and a good storytelling that keeps you hooked.
I liked it, learned a lot and I recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
A lot of anecdotes, facts and explanations and a good storytelling that keeps you hooked.
I liked it, learned a lot and I recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
May 18, 2022
It starts off well, but becomes a bit of a trudge.
I also wasn't taken by the way each chapter looked further back in time, ending in the 16th century. I couldn't help but feel it would have flowed better starting in the past and then coming forward through history.
That said, it is quite thought provoking and shows that reuse and recycling are not at all new concepts.
I also wasn't taken by the way each chapter looked further back in time, ending in the 16th century. I couldn't help but feel it would have flowed better starting in the past and then coming forward through history.
That said, it is quite thought provoking and shows that reuse and recycling are not at all new concepts.
March 4, 2023
Great book, it had four mentions of the Wombles and a lot of history.
April 11, 2025
list-y!
January 3, 2026
Scrapes a three. Interesting subject but I found the book confusing to read.
March 30, 2021
While I found some of the history in this book interesting, I have to admit that it wasn't what I thought it was going to be, even more with how the cover looked.
but I can say that I think I know now how paper is made, mainly because I felt like most of the chapters seemed to always come back around to that and pulping as well as the boards, which was a little dragging at times.
but at the same time, I did learn a few new things about objects and how certain things were reused and remade in to new items for people to use, as well as learning that many buildings and businesses often went up in flames somehow, whether by accident or by the owners trying to beat their debts and the systems.
but I can say that I think I know now how paper is made, mainly because I felt like most of the chapters seemed to always come back around to that and pulping as well as the boards, which was a little dragging at times.
but at the same time, I did learn a few new things about objects and how certain things were reused and remade in to new items for people to use, as well as learning that many buildings and businesses often went up in flames somehow, whether by accident or by the owners trying to beat their debts and the systems.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews