Medieval History
A University of Hertfordshire historian has received a European Union grant to conduct the first ever study into spinning before the Industrial Revolution. The grant for ?823,150 has been awarded by the European Research Council so that Professor John Styles can undertake a five-year research project into Spinning in the Era of the Spinning Wheel, 1400-1800, which begins on 1 June 2010.
"When people today think about spinning wheels, they usually think of Sleeping Beauty, a fairytale princess, pricking her finger. In fact, working by hand at a spinning wheel was what most ordinary women in England did for the 400 years before the Industrial Revolution," said Professor Styles. "This was a skilled occupation, vital to the success of the textile industries that made England rich. Yet historians often dismiss hand spinning as part-time, unskilled work for ignorant country women. They treat it as an inefficient obstacle to increased productivity, ripe for replacement by the mechanical inventions of the Industrial Revolution."
According to Professor Styles, the absence of a study into hand spinning has become increasingly anomalous. Recent years have witnessed a huge expansion of historical research into the history of late-medieval and early-modern England. It has revealed that already, before the Industrial Revolution, England had become one of the world?s richest, most successful economies. The quality of English cloth, and the spun yarn from which it was made, was crucial to this success.
In the course of this new research, historians have explored all kinds of subjects that have to do with spinning, including gender relations, consumption, fashion, technological innovation, household economics, labour relations, globalization and economic policy making. ?Yet we still lack a study that focuses specifically on spinning, which was, by the eighteenth century, the most common form of non-agricultural work in England,? said Professor Styles. ?Spinning in the Era of the Spinning Wheel, 1400-1800 will fill that gap.?
Spinning in the Era of the Spinning Wheel, 1400-1800 aims to provide a comprehensive history of hand spinning in England between 1400 and 1800, a history that approaches the subject from the whole range of relevant perspectives, treating spinning as a practice that was at one and the same time material, technological, economic, commercial, legal, cultural, gendered, and global.
Source: University of Hertfordshire
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Centuries before movie and television audiences thrilled to tales of werewolves, vampires and wizards and Halloween became the second biggest celebration of the year, the ancient Greeks and Romans were spinning scary stories about monsters, ghosts and...
Medieval History
Spinning in the Era of the Spinning Wheel, 1400-1800
A University of Hertfordshire historian has received a European Union grant to conduct the first ever study into spinning before the Industrial Revolution. The grant for ?823,150 has been awarded by the European Research Council so that Professor John Styles can undertake a five-year research project into Spinning in the Era of the Spinning Wheel, 1400-1800, which begins on 1 June 2010.
"When people today think about spinning wheels, they usually think of Sleeping Beauty, a fairytale princess, pricking her finger. In fact, working by hand at a spinning wheel was what most ordinary women in England did for the 400 years before the Industrial Revolution," said Professor Styles. "This was a skilled occupation, vital to the success of the textile industries that made England rich. Yet historians often dismiss hand spinning as part-time, unskilled work for ignorant country women. They treat it as an inefficient obstacle to increased productivity, ripe for replacement by the mechanical inventions of the Industrial Revolution."
According to Professor Styles, the absence of a study into hand spinning has become increasingly anomalous. Recent years have witnessed a huge expansion of historical research into the history of late-medieval and early-modern England. It has revealed that already, before the Industrial Revolution, England had become one of the world?s richest, most successful economies. The quality of English cloth, and the spun yarn from which it was made, was crucial to this success.
In the course of this new research, historians have explored all kinds of subjects that have to do with spinning, including gender relations, consumption, fashion, technological innovation, household economics, labour relations, globalization and economic policy making. ?Yet we still lack a study that focuses specifically on spinning, which was, by the eighteenth century, the most common form of non-agricultural work in England,? said Professor Styles. ?Spinning in the Era of the Spinning Wheel, 1400-1800 will fill that gap.?
Spinning in the Era of the Spinning Wheel, 1400-1800 aims to provide a comprehensive history of hand spinning in England between 1400 and 1800, a history that approaches the subject from the whole range of relevant perspectives, treating spinning as a practice that was at one and the same time material, technological, economic, commercial, legal, cultural, gendered, and global.
Source: University of Hertfordshire
- Recent Discoveries For Anglo-saxon England
ELB writes: Important new research by ASNC Department members Prof. Simon Keynes and Dr Rosalind Love is highlighted in Cambridge University's Research Horizons newsletter this month. As Research Horizons puts it: Recent headlines might give the impression...
- Moravian College Hosts Medieval Conference For Undergrads
Moravian College will host the seventh annual Undergraduate Conference in Medieval and Early Modern Studies on Saturday, December 1, 2012. Over 80 students from 34 different schools will be presenting their research, and Dr. Alfred Siewers of Bucknell...
- Joan Of Arc: Enduring Power
Joan of Arc was born 600 years ago. Six centuries is a long time to continue to mark the birth of a girl who, according to her family and friends, knew little more than spinning and watching over her father?s flocks. But type her name into Amazon?s search...
- Remembering Joan Of Arc, The Maid Of Orléans
No one knows for sure when Joan of Arc was born in the village of Domrémy. But many believe the date was Jan. 6, 1412 ? six centuries ago today. After all this time, the tale of Joan of Arc remains a strange one. A peasant girl who never learned to read...
- Scary Stories Of The Ancient Greeks And Romans
Centuries before movie and television audiences thrilled to tales of werewolves, vampires and wizards and Halloween became the second biggest celebration of the year, the ancient Greeks and Romans were spinning scary stories about monsters, ghosts and...