Threading Time - A Cultural History of Threadwork

Theorizing that needlework represents a variety of life-sustaining bonds among individuals, generations, and traditions, Bausum investigates the role of threadworkers and their creations in human culture by surveying a broad range of literary sources containing passages related to needlecrafts. She considers threadwork from the perspectives of religion, myth, warfare, art, and technology, ranging from biblical references to clothing made in the Garden of Eden, to portrayals of threadworkers in Greek and Roman myths and Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey, to references to textiles in Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. After briefly reviewing the plot of each literary work, Bausum notes references to cloth, clothing, fashion, and characters working on needlework and provides some historical background.