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A Short History of the World According to Sheep
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
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Publisher's summary
An addictively free-ranging survey of the massive impact that the domesticated ungulates of the genus Ovis have had on human history.
From the plains of ancient Mesopotamia to the rolling hills of medieval England to the vast sheep farms of modern-day Australia, sheep have been central to the human story.
Starting with our Neolithic ancestors' first forays into sheep-rearing nearly 10,000 years ago, these remarkable animals have fed us, clothed us, changed our diet and languages, helped us to win wars, decorated our homes and financed the conquest of large swathes of the earth. Enormous fortunes and new, society-changing industries have been made from the fleeces of sheep and cities shaped by shepherds' markets and meat trading.
Sally Coulthard weaves the rich and fascinating story of sheep into a vivid and colourful tapestry, thickly threaded with engaging anecdotes and remarkable ovine facts, whose multiple strands reflect the deep penetration of these woolly animals into every aspect of human society and culture.
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Story
The story of humanity is the story of textiles - as old as civilization itself. Since the first thread was spun, the need for textiles has driven technology, business, politics, and culture. In The Fabric of Civilization, Virginia Postrel synthesizes groundbreaking research from archaeology, economics, and science to reveal a surprising history. From Minoans exporting wool colored with precious purple dye to Egypt, to Romans arrayed in costly Chinese silk, the cloth trade paved the crossroads of the ancient world.
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Pop journalism article lengthened into a book
- By Anonymous User on 02-05-22
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Only the Clothes on Her Back
- Clothing and the Hidden History of Power in the Nineteenth-Century United States
- By: Laura F. Edwards
- Narrated by: Stephanie Richardson
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Only the Clothes on Her Back uncovers practices, commonly known then, but now long forgotten, which made textiles - clothing, cloth, bedding, and accessories, such as shoes and hats - a unique form of property that people without rights could own and exchange. The value of textiles depended on law, and it was law that turned these goods into a secure form of property for marginalized people, who not only used these textiles as currency, credit, and capital, but also as entree into the new republic's economy and governing institutions.
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Buy the book
- By Susan on 12-29-22
By: Laura F. Edwards
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Unraveling
- What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater
- By: Peggy Orenstein
- Narrated by: Peggy Orenstein
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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The COVID pandemic propelled many people to change their lives in ways large and small. Some adopted puppies. Others stress-baked. Peggy Orenstein, a lifelong knitter, went just a little further. To keep herself engaged and cope with a series of seismic shifts in family life, she set out to make a garment from the ground up: learning to shear sheep, spin and dye yarn, then knitting herself a sweater.
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Nailed it!
- By Miss Effie on 02-19-23
By: Peggy Orenstein
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Worn
- A People's History of Clothing
- By: Sofi Thanhauser
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Sofi Thanhauser brilliantly tells five stories—Linen, Cotton, Silk, Synthetics, Wool—about the clothes we wear and where they come from, illuminating our world in unexpected ways. She takes us from the opulent court of Louis XIV to the labor camps in modern-day Chinese-occupied Xinjiang. We see how textiles were once dyed with lichen, shells, bark, saffron, and beetles, displaying distinctive regional weaves and knits, and how the modern Western garment industry has refashioned our attire into the homogenous and disposable uniforms popularized by fast-fashion brands.
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Horrors of the industrial revolution Continued
- By Susan on 01-28-22
By: Sofi Thanhauser
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Vanishing Fleece
- Adventures in American Wool
- By: Clara Parkes
- Narrated by: Clara Parkes
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Join Clara Parkes on a cross-country adventure and meet a cast of characters that includes the shepherds, dyers, and countless workers without whom our knitting needles would be empty, our mills idle, and our feet woefully cold. Travel the country with her as she meets a flock of Saxon Merino sheep in upstate New York, tours a scouring plant in Texas, visits a steamy Maine dyehouse, helps sort freshly shorn wool on a working farm, and learns how wool fleece is measured, baled, shipped, and turned into skeins.
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Great Book.
- By Josemiguel Gomez on 03-02-20
By: Clara Parkes
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Grand Transitions
- How the Modern World Was Made
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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What makes the modern world work? The answer to this deceptively simple question lies in four "grand transitions" of civilization - in populations, agriculture, energy, and economics - that have transformed the way we live.
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Nihil novum sub soli
- By Sam J. on 08-29-22
By: Vaclav Smil
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Dress Codes
- How the Laws of Fashion Made History
- By: Richard Thompson Ford
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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For centuries, clothing has been a wearable status symbol; fashion, a weapon in struggles for social change; and dress codes, a way to maintain political control. Dress codes evolved along with the social and political ideals of the day, but they always reflected struggles for power and status.
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Unlistenable
- By Lauren on 08-01-23
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The Domestic Revolution
- How the Introduction of Coal into Victorian Homes Changed Everything
- By: Ruth Goodman
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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No single invention epitomizes the Victorian era more than the black cast-iron range. Aware that the 21st-century has reduced it to a quaint relic, Ruth Goodman was determined to prove that the hot coal stove provided so much more than morning tea: It might even have kick-started the Industrial Revolution. Wielding the wit and passion seen in How to Be a Victorian, Goodman traces the tectonic shift from wood to coal in the mid-16th century - from sooty trials and errors during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I to the totally smog-clouded reign of Queen Victoria.
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Zombie Apocalypse
- By PeachPecan on 12-25-20
By: Ruth Goodman
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A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects
- By: Sally Coulthard
- Narrated by: Deborah Balm
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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For most of human history, we were rural folk. Our daily lives were bound up with working the land, living within the rhythm of the seasons. And yet rural life is oddly invisible our historical records. The daily routine of the peasant, the farmer or the craftsperson could never compete with the glamour of city life, war and royal drama. Lives went unrecorded, stories untold. There is, though, one way in which we can learn about our rural past. The things we have left behind provide a connection that no document can match; physical artefacts are touchstones that breathe life into its history.
By: Sally Coulthard
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Empire of Cotton
- A Global History
- By: Sven Beckert
- Narrated by: Jim Frangione
- Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is the story of how, beginning well before the advent of machine production in the 1780s, these men captured ancient trades and skills in Asia, combined them with the expropriation of lands in the Americas and the enslavement of African workers to crucially recast the disparate realms of cotton that had existed for millennia. We see how industrial capitalism then reshaped these worlds of cotton into an empire, and how this empire transformed the world.
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A New History of Global Capitalism
- By Lucian of Samosata on 03-17-15
By: Sven Beckert
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Dumb Luck and the Kindness of Strangers
- By: John Gierach
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In Dumb Luck and the Kindness of Strangers, Gierach looks back to the long-ago day when he bought his first resident fishing license in Colorado, where the fishing season never ends, and just knew he was in the right place. And he succinctly sums up part of the appeal of his sport when he writes that it is "[A]n acquired taste that reintroduces the chaos of uncertainty back into our well-regulated lives".
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Familiar places and familiar characters of any fisherman’s experience
- By BearheartRaven on 07-21-20
By: John Gierach
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A Perfect Red
- By: Amy Butler Greenfield
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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A Perfect Red recounts the colorful history of cochineal, a legendary red dye that was once one of the world's most precious commodities. Treasured by the ancient Mexicans, cochineal was sold in the great Aztec marketplaces, where it attracted the attention of the Spanish conquistadors in 1519. Shipped to Europe, the dye created a sensation, producing the brightest, strongest red the world had ever seen. Soon Spain's cochineal monopoly was worth a fortune. Desperate to find their own sources of the elusive dye, the English, French, Dutch, and other Europeans tried to crack the enigma of cochineal.
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History of a peculiar substance through the ages
- By Tobia on 08-17-16
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Beaks, Bones and Bird Songs
- How the Struggle for Survival Has Shaped Birds and Their Behavior
- By: Roger Lederer
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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When we see a bird flying from branch to branch happily chirping, it is easy to imagine they lead a simple life of freedom, flight, and feathers. What we don't see is the arduous, life-threatening challenges they face at every moment. Beaks, Bones and Bird Songs guides the listener through the myriad, and often almost miraculous, things that birds do every day to merely stay alive. Like the goldfinch, which manages extreme weather changes by doubling the density of its plumage in winter.
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very dense but good info
- By K. on 03-20-19
By: Roger Lederer
What listeners say about A Short History of the World According to Sheep
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- A. P.
- 05-13-21
Not bad but could be much better
This book was quite informative but definitely too much focus on UK. As if other countries don’t exist. So many lost opportunities. Narration was not great - whenever she’s quoting anything she changed her voice and is very annoying and completely unnecessary.
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1 person found this helpful
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- TJ Schreiber
- 08-20-20
A Concise History on Sheep and Their Uses
It may bounce around a lot, but thats what I love about it, If you been interested sheep for awhile this is the book for you.
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- Hayley Robertson
- 07-19-22
I couldn't stop talking about sheep after reading
I was drawn to this book as a fiber artist curious about the wonders of wool and interested in perhaps keeping sheep one day. The history shared covers the globe and thousands of years giving a wide range of stories and facts of this early domesticated animal. From sheepdogs to scissors and shears, there is so much more to learn about sheep than I could have imagined. This was a great book to listen to for short drives, guaranteed to leave you with a snippet of information you can share when you get to your destination.
I finished this book 6 months ago and I still think about it almost weekly. Sheep are cute, sheep are beaut, sheep are soft and curly. Don Spencer, anyone?
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2 people found this helpful
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- ®
- 07-31-24
Delightful and entertaining
As a knitter, history nerd (somewhat lapsed), wool enthusiast, and possible future nålbinder, spinner, and/or weaver—these fiber crafts are seductive and insidious!—this book was absolutely meant for me as the audience. Historical sheep, wool crafts, economy, and trade are surprisingly fascinating. Most of the book ended up Great Britain-centric, so the title is a bit misleading, but I was entertained and don't really have any complaints. (I will possibly search out more books to do with handicrafts and wool for further education and entertainment as I knit.)
The narration was absolutely delightful. I loved the narrator's accent and friendly voice, and appreciated her change of voice and use of other accents (skillfully!) for quotes and excerpts.
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- CathyAnn
- 08-26-24
Engaging historical information
I'm a spinner, knitter, and nålbinder, and love learning more about the history of fiber crafting. But this is so much more. The social and economic impact of sheep in the human world are fascinating. The story is told in an accessible, engaging, and often humorous way, with outstanding narration. I highly recommend it not only for fiber lovers and history lovers, but anyone interested in an enjoyable and interesting listen.
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- Yarngirl52
- 10-31-22
Knitter, spinster, lover of all things wool
The book is short, but by no means lacking on history, humor, and trivia regarding wool, sheep and the necessity for humans to keep warm.
Very interesting history of the British wool industry crossing over to the colonies. Seems that if all the restrictions placed on the colonists nothing enraged them more than restrictions on wool.
I am happy that the author dispelled the common myths that Ganseys, Aran, & Icelandic sweaters and Scottish tartans are ancient designs passed down for generations. They are more likely the fabrication of clever marketers wanting to lure tourists into the various shops in Dublin, Glasgow, and London.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-12-23
Fascinating!
So interesting especially to
Spinners and shepherds and weavers, lots of history and culture of wool
And sheep
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- Crystal
- 03-03-23
Excellent book
This book is factual but also incredibly entertaining. The narrator has a wonderful voice. I set my device to 0.9 speed. I have listened to this book 3 times and suspect, I’ll listen to it many more.
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- Cate F.
- 12-11-21
More like Great Britain & Ireland
Not just for wool fans, this book tells how economic history depends on sheep. It’s an enjoyable listen and I appreciated all the details.
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- AmazonCustomer
- 06-14-21
Loved it!
This was so interesting and informative! The voice acting was great, too. I only wish it was longer and had even more detail about non-Western parts of the world. There was some of that, but more would have made it even better.
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1 person found this helpful