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  3. Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets
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Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets

Dorothy Armstrong

4 Reviews

Rated 0

Empires & historical states, Textile artworks: carpets & rugs, General & world history, History: earliest times to present day, Prehistoric archaeology, Antiques & collectables: carpets, rugs & textiles

A spellbinding look at the history of the world through the stories of twelve carpets

'A fascinating alternative history covering 2,500 years and a geographical span from Japan to California' NEW STATESMAN
'A revelation . . . The tale of each carpet as Armstrong tells it is untidy and tragic and comical all at once' TESSA HADLEY

On the saddles of warlords, draping the walls of palaces, under the feet of presidents, dictators and religious leaders: where there is power, there have been carpets.

Threads of Empire is a vivid new history of global power told through the stories of the world's most fascinating rugs. From colonial bureaucrats to Lutheran priests, oil barons to Islamic rules, Scythian chieftains to Churchill and Stalin, textile scholar Dorothy Armstrong explores how these objects have always travelled in the slipstream of power - and how the unwritten histories of those who made them are woven into the fabric beneath our feet.

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Praise for Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets

  • A revelation . . . The tale of each carpet as she tells it is untidy and tragic and comical all at once - THE PAST

  • Armstrong shares a lifetime's passion with enviable elegance, weaving her way across centuries and continents. The vocabulary of storytelling is threaded with metaphors straight from the loom; this book shows us why - MASQUERADE

  • A fascinating exploration of the part twelve carpets have played in world events. Carpets, usually woven by nameless women, have been desired throughout history by sultans and holy men, tycoons and tyrants, and their histories shed light on power dynamics across the ages - Literary Review

  • [A] fascinating alternative history covering 2,500 years and a geographical span from Japan to California via the weaving heartlands of Central Asia . . . retrieves something of the history so long trodden underfoot - New Statesman

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