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virginia postrel

Showing 1 - 12 of 12 results for “virginia postrel
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  • The Fabric of Civilization

    How Textiles Made the World

    “A journey as epic, and varying, as the Silk Road itself...[The Fabric of Civilization is] like a swatch of a Florentine Renaissance brocade: carefully woven, the technique precise, the colors a mix of shade and shine and an accurate representation of the whole cloth” (The New York Times)The story of humanity is the story of textiles―as old as civilization itself. Since the first thread was spun, ... Read more

    $14.99 USD

  • The Substance of Style

    How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness

    Whether it's sleek leather pants, a shiny new Apple computer, or a designer toaster, we make important decisions as consumers every day based on our sensory experience. Sensory appeals are everywhere, and they are intensifying, radically changing how Americans live and work. The twenty-first century has become the age of aesthetics, and whether we realize it or not, this influence has taken over ... Read more

    $12.99 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

  • The Power of Glamour

    Longing and the Art of Visual Persuasion

    In provocative detail with more than one hundred illustrations, critically acclaimed author Virginia Postrel separates glamour from glitz, revealing what qualities make a person, an object, a setting, or an experience glamorous.What is it that creates that pleasurable pang of desire—the feeling of “if only”? If only I could wear those clothes, belong to that group, drive that car, live in that ... Read more

    $13.99 USD

  • The Future and Its Enemies

    The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise,

    Today we have greater wealth, health, opportunity, and choice than at any time in history. Yet a chorus of intellectuals and politicians laments our current condition -- as slaves to technology, coarsened by popular culture, and insecure in the face of economic change. The future, they tell us, is dangerously out of control, and unless we precisely govern the forces of change, we risk disaster.In ... Read more

    $13.99 USD

  • Audiobook

    The Fabric of Civilization

    How Textiles Made the World

    Narrated by Caroline Turner Cole ...

    Unabridged

    9 hours 43 min

    “A journey as epic, and varying, as the Silk Road itself...[The Fabric of Civilization is] like a swatch of a Florentine Renaissance brocade: carefully woven, the technique precise, the colors a mix of shade and shine and an accurate representation of the whole cloth” (The New York Times)The story of humanity is the story of textiles―as old as civilization itself. Since the first thread was spun, ... Read more

    $27.99 USD

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  • Audiobook

    The Golden Thread

    How Fabric Changed History

    Narrated by Helen Johns ...

    Unabridged

    11 hours 26 min

    The bestselling author of The Secret Lives of Color returns with this rollicking narrative of the 30,000-year history of fabric, briskly told through thirteen charismatic episodes.From colorful 30,000-year-old threads found on the floor of a Georgian cave to the Indian calicoes that sparked the Industrial Revolution, The Golden Thread weaves an illuminating story of human ingenuity. Design ... Read more

    $25.99 USD

  • Periodic Tales

    A Cultural History of the Elements, from Arsenic to Zinc

    "Fascinating and beautiful . . . if only chemistry had been like this at school." —Matt Ridley, New York Times–bestselling author of Genome, in Prospect magazineLike the alphabet, the calendar, or the zodiac, the periodic table of the chemical elements has a permanent place in our imagination. But aside from the handful of common ones (iron, carbon, copper, gold), the elements themselves remain ... Read more

    $17.29 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

  • Flapper

    A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern

    by Joshua Zeitz ...
    Flapper is a dazzling look at the women who heralded a radical change in American culture and launched the first truly modern decade.The New Woman of the 1920s puffed cigarettes, snuck gin, hiked her hemlines, danced the Charleston, and necked in roadsters. More important, she earned her own keep, controlled her own destiny, and secured liberties that modern women take for granted.Flapper is an ... Read more

    $14.99 USD

  • Math for English Majors

    A Human Take on the Universal Language

    by Ben Orlin ...
    In this trailblazing work from the internet’s most empathetic math teacher, Ben Orlin unravels the secrets behind the world’s most confounding language.Math, it is said, is the "universal language.” But if a language brings people together, why does math make so many of us feel so alone? In Math for English Majors, bestselling author Ben Orlin (Math with Bad Drawings) offers fresh insights for the ... Read more

    $15.99 USD

  • Why We Make Mistakes

    How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure WeAre Way Above Average

    We forget our passwords. We pay too much to go to the gym. We think we’d be happier if we lived in California (we wouldn’t), and we think we should stick with our first answer on tests (we shouldn’t). Why do we make mistakes? And could we do a little better?We human beings have design flaws. Our eyes play tricks on us, our stories change in the retelling, and most of us are fairly sure we’re way ... Read more

    Was $10.99 USD Now $8.99 USD

  • Knowing What We Know

    The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic

    “A delightful compendium of the kind of facts you immediately want to share with anyone you encounter . . . . Simon Winchester has firmly earned his place in history . . . as a promulgator of knowledge of every variety, perhaps the last of the famous explorers who crisscrossed the now-vanished British Empire and reported what they found to an astonished world.” — New York TimesFrom the creation of ... Read more

    $14.99 USD

  • Bird Brain

    An Exploration of Avian Intelligence

    by Nathan Emery ...
    This surprising look at the intelligence and behavior of birds is "a winner . . . the illustrations are excellent—dramatic, informative, and fun" (Frank Gill, author of Ornithology).One of Forbes 's Best Books About Birds and Birding of the YearBirds have not been known for their high IQs, which is why a person of questionable intelligence is sometimes called a "birdbrain." Yet in the past two ... Read more

    $21.59 USD or Free with Kobo Plus