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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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A Short History of the World According to Sheep
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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.
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Critic reviews
"This book deserves a place in your bookcase next to Harari's Sapiens. It's every bit as fascinating and is surely destined to be just as successful." (Julian Norton)
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The Golden Thread
- How Fabric Changed History
- By: Kassia St. Clair
- Narrated by: Helen Johns
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 271
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 232
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 230
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 journalist Kassia St. Clair guides us through the technological advancements and cultural customs that would redefine human civilization - from the fabric that allowed mankind to achieve extraordinary things (traverse the oceans and shatter athletic records) and survive in unlikely places (outer space and the South Pole).
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent for those interested in textiles
- By Adeliese Baumann on 12-14-19
By: Kassia St. Clair
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Women's Work
- The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times
- By: Elizabeth Wayland Barber
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 197
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 167
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 166
Twenty thousand years ago, women were making and wearing the first clothing created from spun fibers. In fact, right up to the Industrial Revolution the fiber arts were an enormous economic force, belonging primarily to women. Despite the great toil required in making cloth and clothing, most books on ancient history and economics have no information on them. Much of this gap results from the extreme perishability of what women produced, but it seems clear that until now descriptions of prehistoric and early historic cultures have omitted virtually half the picture.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Respectful treatment of the archeological record.
- By fiberflair on 02-23-21
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Threads of Life
- A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle
- By: Clare Hunter
- Narrated by: Siobhan Redmond
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 60
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
From the political propaganda of the Bayeux Tapestry, World War I soldiers coping with PTSD, and the maps sewn by schoolgirls in the New World, to the AIDS quilt, Hmong story clothes, and pink pussyhats, women and men have used the language of sewing to make their voices heard, even in the most desperate of circumstances. Threads of Life is a chronicle of identity, protest, memory, power, and politics told through the stories of needlework.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Textile bucket list.
- By Amazon Customer on 10-18-21
By: Clare Hunter
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The Fabric of Civilization
- How Textiles Made the World
- By: Virginia I. Postrel
- Narrated by: Caroline Cole
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 192
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 161
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 161
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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1 out of 5 stars
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Pop journalism article lengthened into a book
- By Anonymous User on 02-05-22
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Fabric
- The Hidden History of the Material World
- By: Victoria Finlay
- Narrated by: Carla Kissane
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 23
How is a handmade fabric helping save an ancient forest? Why is a famous fabric pattern from India best known by the name of a Scottish town? How is a Chinese dragon robe a diagram of the whole universe? What is the difference between how the Greek Fates and the Viking Norns used threads to tell our destiny? In Fabric, bestselling author Victoria Finlay spins us round the globe, weaving stories of our relationship with cloth and asking how and why people through the ages have made it, worn it, invented it, and made symbols out of it. And sometimes why they have fought for it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Perfect Book for Needleworking
- By LaVonne on 11-18-23
By: Victoria Finlay
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Fowl Play
- A History of the Chicken from Dinosaur to Dinner Plate
- By: Sally Coulthard
- Narrated by: Deirdra Whelan
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 6
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6
The chicken can fly only a few metres but–somehow–this unlikely evolutionary descendant of Tyrannosaurus Rex has conquered the world. Earth is now home to more than twenty billion chickens, at least ten times more than any other bird. For every human on the planet, there are three chickens. In Fowl Play, Sally Coulthard charts the chicken's fascinating journey from dinosaur to domestication to exploitation, exploring every aspect of the history of Gallus gallus domesticus.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very interesting
- By E. on 01-25-23
By: Sally Coulthard
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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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Overall4 out of 5 stars 27
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 24
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Story4 out of 5 stars 24
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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1 out of 5 stars
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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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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 84
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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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5 out of 5 stars
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Zombie Apocalypse
- By PeachPecan on 12-25-20
By: Ruth Goodman
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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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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 86
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
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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3 out of 5 stars
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Horrors of the industrial revolution Continued
- By Susan on 01-28-22
By: Sofi Thanhauser
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Eye of the Beholder
- Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing
- By: Laura Snyder
- Narrated by: Tamara Marston
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Story4 out of 5 stars 46
"See for yourself!" was the clarion call of the 1600s. Natural philosophers threw off the yoke of ancient authority, peered at nature with microscopes and telescopes, and ignited the scientific revolution. Artists investigated nature with lenses and created paintings filled with realistic effects of light and shadow. The hub of this optical innovation was the small Dutch city of Delft.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Historical book about the evolution of optics through the eyes of two geniuses
- By Memi on 04-12-17
By: Laura Snyder
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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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Overall5 out of 5 stars 155
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 132
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Story5 out of 5 stars 128
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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5 out of 5 stars
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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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Inside the Apple
- A Streetwise History of New York City
- By: Michelle Nevius, James Nevius
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 17 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
Lively and comprehensive, Inside the Apple brings to life New York's fascinating past. This narrative history of New York City is the first to offer practical walking tour know-how. Fast-paced, but thorough, each of its bite-size chapters focus on an event, person, or place of historical significance. Rich in anecdotes, it whisks listeners from colonial New Amsterdam through Manhattan's past, right up to post-9/11 New York. This energetic, wide-ranging, and often humorous book covers New York's most important historical moments but is always anchored in the city of today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best walking tour
- By Kris Seymour on 11-12-23
By: Michelle Nevius, and others
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Fibershed
- Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy
- By: Rebecca Burgess
- Narrated by: Tia Rider
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
There is a major disconnect between what we wear and our knowledge of its impact on land, air, water, labor, and human health. Even those who value access to safe, local, nutritious food have largely overlooked the production of fiber, dyes, and the chemistry that forms the backbone of modern textile production. While humans are 100 percent reliant on their second skin, it’s common to think little about the biological and human cultural context from which our clothing derives.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interested In Sustainable Life, Not Just Food?
- By becky on 11-21-19
By: Rebecca Burgess
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Figures in a Landscape
- People and Places
- By: Paul Theroux
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 11
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 8
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Story5 out of 5 stars 8
Drawing together a fascinating body of writing from over 14 years of work, Figures in a Landscape ranges from profiles of cultural icons (Oliver Sacks, Elizabeth Taylor, Robin Williams) to intimate personal remembrances, from thrilling adventures in Africa to literary writings from Theroux's rich and expansive personal reading. Collectively these pieces offer a fascinating portrait of the author himself, his extraordinary life and his restless and ever-curious mind.
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5 out of 5 stars
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GOOD AS USUAL
- By JK on 08-23-24
By: Paul Theroux
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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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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 143
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 127
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 127
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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5 out of 5 stars
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Nailed it!
- By Miss Effie on 02-19-23
By: Peggy Orenstein
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Assembling California
- By: John McPhee
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 244
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 206
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 201
At various times in a span of fifteen years, John McPhee made geological field surveys in the company of Eldridge Moores, a tectonicist at the University of California at Davis. The result of these trips is Assembling California, a cross-section in human and geologic time, from Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada through the golden foothills of the Mother Lode and across the Great Central Valley to the wine country of the Coast Ranges, the rock of San Francisco, and the San Andreas family of faults.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Subduction leads to orogeny zones in California
- By Darwin8u on 11-30-13
By: John McPhee
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The Museum of the Wood Age
- By: Max Adams
- Narrated by: Max Adams
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
As a material, wood has no equal in strength, resilience, adaptability and availability. It has been our partner in the cultural evolution from woodland foragers to engineers of our own destiny. Tracing that partnership through tools, devices, construction and artistic expression, Max Adams explores the role that wood has played in our own history as an imaginative, curious and resourceful species.
By: Max Adams