Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Craft

By: Glenn Adamson
Narrated by: Rhett Samuel Price
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.00

Buy for $25.00

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Bloomsbury presents Craft by Glenn Adamson, read by Rhett Samuel Price.

A groundbreaking and endlessly surprising history of how artisans created America, from the nation’s origins to the present day.

At the center of the United States’ economic and social development, according to conventional wisdom, are industry and technology—while craftspeople and handmade objects are relegated to a bygone past. Renowned historian Glenn Adamson turns that narrative on its head in this innovative account, revealing makers’ central role in shaping America’s identity. Examine any phase of the nation’s struggle to define itself, and artisans are there—from the silversmith Paul Revere and the revolutionary carpenters and blacksmiths who hurled tea into Boston Harbor, to today’s “maker movement.” From Mother Jones to Rosie the Riveter. From Betsy Ross to Rosa Parks. From suffrage banners to the AIDS Quilt.

Adamson shows that craft has long been implicated in debates around equality, education, and class. Artisanship has often been a site of resistance for oppressed people, such as enslaved African-Americans whose skilled labor might confer hard-won agency under bondage, or the Native American makers who adapted traditional arts into statements of modernity. Theirs are among the array of memorable portraits of Americans both celebrated and unfamiliar in this richly peopled book. As Adamson argues, these artisans’ stories speak to our collective striving toward a more perfect union. From the beginning, America had to be—and still remains to be—crafted.

©2021 Glenn Adamson (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Craft

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    16
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Insightful for Craft & Labor

As a ceramic artist, I was primarily interested in this book to see how ceramic history intertwined with other craft histories, Adamson’s writing explored this and much more, touching on subjects like the ever-shifting relationships between handicrafts and industry, the importance of craft in marginalized communities, and society’s broader relationship with craft through art, hobbies, and necessity.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A wonderful book on history, evolution and influence of craft in America and beyond.

Excellent! Great premise, well researched and gives plenty food for thought. I highly recommend this book to all

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Survey of Craft in America

Excellent book overall. As a survey it necessarily only touches on subject that make books could, or already have many books written about them. However, it's strength is in the threading together of all these things, many of which have been overlooked, dismissed, or not given enough consideration in other historical narratives. The downside to the audio book version is the narrator's mispronunciation of many terms throughout the book, relatively low volume, and slight monotone - though it's not terrible, and is compelling enough for the book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book full of useful information skillfully woven together

As an artist this book explained to me how art and manufacturing in America came to be. The real events, stories, and politics good or not so great. From white plantation owner right up to crafting Covid masks.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great historical account of craft

Very thorough and insightful history of craft. First book to compound all of these histories in such a thorough manner.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

It's. a religious guy passing god.

It is for the religious reader. got on my nerves I just wanted to learn about crafts.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

disappointing

it is more of a manifesto on discrimination and racism than about craft .

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!