What is the main message of The Golden Thread?

The main message of The Golden Thread is the history and significance of textiles in human civilization.

Who is the author of The Golden Thread?

The author of The Golden Thread is Kassia St Clair.

History

The Golden Thread Book Summary - The Golden Thread Book explained in key points

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The Golden Thread summary

Name: The Golden Thread
Rating: 4.1 (26 reviews)
Author: Kassia St Clair

Kassia St Clair

How Fabric Changed History

4.1 (26 ratings)

23 mins

Brief summary

'The Golden Thread' by Kassia St Clair is a fascinating exploration of the history of textiles. From silken robes to the garments of slaves, St Clair shows how fabrics have shaped the world we live in.

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Culture Anthropology

Table of Contents

The Golden Thread
Summary of 7 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Glimpse history through a veil.

You probably know ages of ancient history that are named after the metal humans were using at the time: the “Iron” or “Bronze” age, for example. But why don’t we have a time period named after flax or wool?

Archeology is fundamentally biased against fabric, ephemeral as it is compared to other materials. But evidence of fabric production litters the historical record, from ancient fibers discovered at digs to the looms and tools for spinning thread. The Golden Thread takes a closer look at how fabric has continually expressed and enabled human technological advancement, from ancient cultures to our modern world.

In these blinks, you’ll learn:

how sheep made the Vikings powerful;
how women’s labor has propped up economies; and
what spacesuits owe to the bra.

Linen was an essential element of ancient Egyptian life – and death.

Egypt is famous for its arid climate, which tends to preserve historical evidence extraordinarily well. Take fabric, for instance. In most places, it lasts a few hundred years at best, but in Egypt, textiles have been found that date back seven thousand years.

By far the most common type of textile found by historians in Egypt is linen. This material held a special position in Egyptian culture. In fact, at an archeological site at Amarna, 85 percent of the thousands of fabric remnants discovered were made of linen.

Linen was important in many ways. For one, as a valuable, tradeable asset, it was used like money to obtain goods or services and collected over time as a way of storing wealth. Linen underpinned the Egyptian economy.

And in manufacturing, it was commonly used to make bandages, wrappings and clothing. Linen is a very good conductor of heat, which makes it feel cool against the skin – a practical attribute in Egypt’s climate.

But beyond its practical value, linen also played a key part in Egyptian religious practices, where secrecy and concealment were often important. For example, deep within temple shrines, cult statues were wrapped in linen daily by priests as part of their worship.

A common misconception today is that Egyptian death rite of mummification was merely a method of preserving bodies for the afterlife. This would mean that the linen wrappings were a mere covering for the artifacts of real importance.

But in fact, it was the linen wrapping that gave mummies their meaning and significance, making them sacred.

The intricate wrapping of mummies was highly ritualized and secretive. Priests who did the work were even respectfully called “masters of secrets.” The wrapping took place in a special room, and the priests would purify themselves beforehand by shaving, washing and donning fresh linen.

The ritual of wrapping added meaning to the mummification process in many ways.

For one, priests usually tried to layer fabrics in multiples of the numbers three and four, which had a special status in Egyptian culture. Objects of significance like amulets were also layered in with the fabric.

What’s more, people seem to have collected the linen used for their own burial during their lives, preferring textiles that held some significance due to their past. For instance, text on one of the linens wrapping the body of Ramses III identified its weaver as the daughter of a high priest, which is probably why it was considered worthy for this function.

The process of embalming and wrapping transformed a dead human body into something imbued with spiritual significance. The cultural significance of fabric can go far beyond the spiritual, however. It can also be integral in diplomacy and art, as we’ll see in the next blink.

Silk was a staple of ancient Chinese culture, one associated primarily with women.

In ancient Chinese culture, silk was equated with many kinds of power.

For one, its economic significance was obvious – an enormous industry revolved around silk. Palaces were equipped with facilities for silk manufacture, and Chinese royalty had a hand in their operation. Silk was even used as currency. For example, one ancient inscription notes that a horse and high-quality silks were used to purchase five slaves.

The extraordinary success of Viking ships was largely due to wool.

The Vikings were skilled boat-builders – sailors whose famous longships helped them to commit infamous, violent raids on towns and monasteries.

But they also did much more than that. The Vikings were traders, carrying huge loads of goods, especially animal pelts, to continental Europe and all the way to the Black Sea. They received bounty from all over the world in return. Chinese and Persian textiles have been found in Scandinavian graves, and it appears that Arabic designs and language were common symbols of status in Viking communities.

The human body needs the right clothing for protection in extreme cold.

In 1912, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott was beaten by a Norwegian team in a race to be the first humans to reach the South Pole. Tragically, on their journey home, Scott and the four members of his Terra Nova expedition perished in the Antarctic’s harsh environment.

Scott and his men were experienced explorers, but in the end, a key risk in polar exploration is the human body, which simply doesn’t handle cold well.

Synthetic fabrics were a popular and dangerous innovation.

In the late nineteenth century, scientists developed a new kind of fabric from cellulose, which they called artificial or imitation silk. The medium for this was usually wood pulp, turned into a thick liquid called viscose with the addition of carbon disulfide (CS2). Viscose was then treated with acid until filaments of rayon formed.

Rayon was inexpensive and commercially promising, and it could even be woven with natural fibers to create new, affordable fabric blends. And because synthetics were made using strong chemicals, production was also highly mechanized and efficient – the domain of large multinational corporations. From 1931 to 1936, the rayon industry in America increased production by 80 percent.

Walking on the moon required special clothing and the innovations of a women’s underwear company.

On July 21, 1969, 15 percent of the world’s population tuned in to watch Neil Armstrong become the first person to set foot on the moon. But few gave much consideration to one of Armstrong’s most critical pieces of equipment: his clothing.

People leaving the Earth’s surface have always needed special clothing to protect them from high-altitude effects like the cold and thin air. For example, American girdle-maker David Clark’s anti-g suits, which are a type of flight suit, had vinyl-coated nylon bladders enclosing pilot’s bodies, pressurized to encourage blood flow and protect them during very high acceleration. The alien environment of space, of course, demanded something even more extreme.

Cutting-edge clothing meant huge boosts to athletes – but not always fairly so.

Technological advancement has always raised questions about fairness in sports and whether new equipment or methods jeopardize the integrity of the competition.

Just before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Speedo’s full-body LZR Racer swimsuit was introduced. It was designed to reduce drag – its fabric a blend of smooth, water-repellent synthetics and its seams joined together by ultrasonic welding to reduce bulging. It fit like a corset and felt strange and paper-like on the skin, but there was no question that the suit was incredibly fast; swimmers wearing it broke 22 world records in just two months, and a whopping 147 new records were set in 2009.

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What is The Golden Thread about?

Textiles are woven into every part of human history. Our continual reinvention of cloth is a testament to the irrepressibility of human ingenuity. The Golden Thread (2018) surveys the role of fabrics in numerous epochs and cultures, making it clear that fabric has always been more than simply clothing – it is an ever-evolving vehicle for human ingenuity and achievement.

The Golden Thread Review

The Golden Thread by Kassia St Clair (2018) is an exploration of the history and significance of fabrics throughout civilization. Here's why this book is worth reading:

Rich in historical context, it uncovers the stories behind various textile traditions and reveals their impact on society.
Detailed and informative, the book delves into the technical aspects of fabric production and highlights the ingenuity of human craftsmanship.
With its intriguing anecdotes and fascinating facts, it brings to life the often overlooked world of textiles, making it a captivating read.

Who should read The Golden Thread?

Lovers of fabric and textiles
History buffs
Fashionistas looking for inspiration

About the Author

Kassia St Clair is a London-based freelance journalist and author. She is the holder of a first-class honors degree in history from Bristol University and a Master’s degree from Oxford University. Since 2013, she has written a column about color for Elle magazine, and her writing about design in culture has been published in The Economist and New Statesman, among other publications. Her acclaimed previous book, The Secret Lives of Colour, was published in 2017.

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