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Shoddy: From Devil’s Dust to the Renaissance of Rags
The history of modern-day old clothes recycling begins with a thing called shoddy. Starting in the early 1800s, shoddy was the name given to a new material made from reclaimed wool, and to one of the earliest forms of industrial recycling. Old rags and leftover fabric clippings were ground to bits by a machine known as “the devil” and then re-used. Usually undisclosed, shoddy–also known as reworked wool–became suit jackets, army blankets, mattress stuffing, and much more. Shoddy is the afterlife of rags. And Shoddy, the book, reveals hidden worlds of textile intrigue.
In Shoddy: From Devil’s Dust to the Renaissance of Rags, Hanna Rose Shell takes readers on a journey to discover shoddy, from Haiti to the “shoddy towns” of West Yorkshire in England, to the United States, back in time to the British cholera epidemics and the American Civil War, and into agricultural fields, textile labs, and rag-shredding factories. Shell’s narrative is both literary and historical, drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, from court cases to military uniforms, mattress labels to medical textbooks, political cartoons to high art. Shoddy moves between genres, bringing richly drawn characters and unexpected objects to life. Along the way, shoddy becomes equally an evocative object and a portal into another world.
Almost since the time it first appeared, shoddy was both ubiquitous and controversial. In part because it was often so hard to detect, it was inherently suspicious. Public health experts worried about sanitation and disease—how could old clothes be disinfected? As well, the idea of wearing someone else’s old clothes so close to your own skin was discomforting in and of itself. Could you sleep peacefully knowing that your mattress was very likely to be stuffed with dead soldiers’ overcoats? The use of the term “virgin” wool, the idea of virginity in relation to clothes, in fact emerged as an effort by the wool industry to counter shoddy’s appeal: to make shoddy seem shoddy. Over time, shoddy would capture a host of personal, ethical, commercial, and societal failings. And yet, there was always, within shoddy, the alluring concept of regeneration, of what we today think of as conscious clothing, eco-fashion, sustainable textiles.
Shell exposes an interwoven tale of industrial espionage, political infighting, scientific inquiry, ethnic prejudices, and war profiteering. Discarded clothes may make many journeys over the course of several lifetimes. Not only in your garments, but under your rug, in your mattress pads, piano blankets, in the peculiar confetti-like stuffing in your mailing envelopes, even in the insulation in your walls. Though it began with wool, over the past century the shredding “devil” has turned to synthetics from nylon stockings to Kevlar. Shoddy is likely connected to something you are wearing right now. After reading, you will never use the word shoddy or think about your clothes, the environment, sustainability, or the intermingled world around you the same way again.
In Shoddy: From Devil’s Dust to the Renaissance of Rags, Hanna Rose Shell takes readers on a journey to discover shoddy, from Haiti to the “shoddy towns” of West Yorkshire in England, to the United States, back in time to the British cholera epidemics and the American Civil War, and into agricultural fields, textile labs, and rag-shredding factories. Shell’s narrative is both literary and historical, drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, from court cases to military uniforms, mattress labels to medical textbooks, political cartoons to high art. Shoddy moves between genres, bringing richly drawn characters and unexpected objects to life. Along the way, shoddy becomes equally an evocative object and a portal into another world.
Almost since the time it first appeared, shoddy was both ubiquitous and controversial. In part because it was often so hard to detect, it was inherently suspicious. Public health experts worried about sanitation and disease—how could old clothes be disinfected? As well, the idea of wearing someone else’s old clothes so close to your own skin was discomforting in and of itself. Could you sleep peacefully knowing that your mattress was very likely to be stuffed with dead soldiers’ overcoats? The use of the term “virgin” wool, the idea of virginity in relation to clothes, in fact emerged as an effort by the wool industry to counter shoddy’s appeal: to make shoddy seem shoddy. Over time, shoddy would capture a host of personal, ethical, commercial, and societal failings. And yet, there was always, within shoddy, the alluring concept of regeneration, of what we today think of as conscious clothing, eco-fashion, sustainable textiles.
Shell exposes an interwoven tale of industrial espionage, political infighting, scientific inquiry, ethnic prejudices, and war profiteering. Discarded clothes may make many journeys over the course of several lifetimes. Not only in your garments, but under your rug, in your mattress pads, piano blankets, in the peculiar confetti-like stuffing in your mailing envelopes, even in the insulation in your walls. Though it began with wool, over the past century the shredding “devil” has turned to synthetics from nylon stockings to Kevlar. Shoddy is likely connected to something you are wearing right now. After reading, you will never use the word shoddy or think about your clothes, the environment, sustainability, or the intermingled world around you the same way again.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
272 pages, Hardcover
Published April 3, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 24, 2023
Shoddy was a noun long before it became a adjective. Shoddy is the name applied to fabrics made from recycled wool. Old woolen garments had a second life even before people thought to rip apart the fibers to make new cloth. Rags were strewn on fields as fertilizer because the wool releases nitrogen as it decomposes (Synthetic blends have pretty much ruined that option!). I hadn’t thought about it until the book brought it up, but millions of old military uniforms, bandages, undergarments, and blankets from dead soldiers, immigrants, and hospitals presented a real health hazard in terms of disease, on top of the lung diseases suffered by people who worked in the shoddy business and breathed in the fine wool dust.
Although interesting, I thought the author used too many lengthy quotes from other sources (a cheap way to get to book length, if you ask me); gave too much unnecessary and unrelated information on how early photos were developed; delved too much into pseudo-psycho analysis into the too many old photos of Civil War dead; and wrote too academically in attempts to sound profound (e.g., “The intimate materiality of the unknowable is ascendant.”)
What I liked most in the book was Marx’s description of rags as the “excrement of consumption.” I’ll have to remember that one.
Although interesting, I thought the author used too many lengthy quotes from other sources (a cheap way to get to book length, if you ask me); gave too much unnecessary and unrelated information on how early photos were developed; delved too much into pseudo-psycho analysis into the too many old photos of Civil War dead; and wrote too academically in attempts to sound profound (e.g., “The intimate materiality of the unknowable is ascendant.”)
What I liked most in the book was Marx’s description of rags as the “excrement of consumption.” I’ll have to remember that one.
July 20, 2022
Did not know the etymology of this word nor its economic importance. Shell brings a contemporary perspective to this historic textile as she explores the heritage and impact of shoddy in England and in the US. Great bibliography too for future reading
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July 7, 2023Philosophy disguised as history
An author who loves complicated sentences, repetition, and has a fear of plain speaking. Barely enough history of the subject to keep a reader looking forward to more that never materializes.
An author who loves complicated sentences, repetition, and has a fear of plain speaking. Barely enough history of the subject to keep a reader looking forward to more that never materializes.
October 14, 2023
There is so much good research behind this book but the presentation is a bit all over the place - I couldn't quite work out what the book was about, in the end.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews