The Arkwrights


Book Description

Richard Arkwright was born in Preston in 1732. He married Patience Holt in 1755 and had a son, Richard, in the same year. After Patience's death in 1756, he married Margaret Biggens in 1761. He passed away in 1792, and was buried at Smelting Mill Green, close to Cromford Bridge.




The Spinning World


Book Description

This collection of essays examines the history of cotton textiles at a global level over the period 1200-1850. It provides new answers to two questions: what is it about cotton that made it the paradigmatic first global commodity? And second, why did cotton industries in different parts of the world follow different paths of development?




Hand Spinning Cotton


Book Description

The art of cotton spinning has become more sophisticated since Harry and Olive Linder first set out to disprove the myth that cotton was more difficult to spin than any other fiber. When the Linders first self-published Handspinning Cotton in 1977, there were very few spinners spinning cotton; it was an almost forgotten art.Handspinning Cotton has been out-of-print since 1995 and has been sorely missed. Currently, there is no single spinning book devoted solely to cotton fiber and the unique techniques for spinning it. The rights to the Linder's self-published book has remained in their family's hands since Harry and Olive's passing. As two of the Linder's first protégés, their daughters have asked us to update and republish this treasured book.It is our honor and privilege to try to do justice to the spirit of these cotton gurus who started a cotton-spinning revolution. While cotton spinning has grownup in the past 40 years, and there are many changes in how to approach cotton spinning, we have striven, in updating this book, to keep to the original spirit of Harry and Olive Linder's teaching. Their book is still a treasure and should stay intact for all future generations of cotton spinners.













Empire of Cotton


Book Description

WINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZE • A Pulitzer Prize finalist that's as unsettling as it is enlightening: a book that brilliantly weaves together the story of cotton with how the present global world came to exist. “Masterly … An astonishing achievement.” —The New York Times The empire of cotton was, from the beginning, a fulcrum of constant global struggle between slaves and planters, merchants and statesmen, workers and factory owners. Sven Beckert makes clear how these forces ushered in the world of modern capitalism, including the vast wealth and disturbing inequalities that are with us today. In a remarkably brief period, European entrepreneurs and powerful politicians recast the world’s most significant manufacturing industry, combining imperial expansion and slave labor with new machines and wage workers to make and remake global capitalism.




Great Inventors and Their Inventions


Book Description

Nine remarkable men produced inventions that changed the world. The printing press, the telephone, powered flight, recording and others have made the modern world what it is. But who were the men who had these ideas and made reality of them? As David Angus shows, they were very different quiet, boisterous, confident, withdrawn but all had a moment of vision allied to single-minded determination to battle through numerous prototypes and produced something that really worked. It is a fascinating account for younger listeners.




Like a Family


Book Description

Since its original publication in 1987, Like a Family has become a classic in the study of American labor history. Basing their research on a series of extraordinary interviews, letters, and articles from the trade press, the authors uncover the voices and experiences of workers in the Southern cotton mill industry during the 1920s and 1930s. Now with a new afterword, this edition stands as an invaluable contribution to American social history. "The genius of Like a Family lies in its effortless integration of the history of the family--particularly women--into the history of the cotton-mill world.--Ira Berlin, New York Times Book Review "Like a Family is history, folklore, and storytelling all rolled into one. It is a living, revelatory chronicle of life rarely observed by the academe. A powerhouse.--Studs Terkel "Here is labor history in intensely human terms. Neither great impersonal forces nor deadening statistics are allowed to get in the way of people. If students of the New South want both the dimensions and the feel of life and labor in the textile industry, this book will be immensely satisfying.--Choice