Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets

Dorothy Armstrong

Book cover for Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets
Book cover for Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets

Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets

Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets

Dorothy Armstrong

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Description

Carpet specialist Dorothy Armstrong tells the stories surrounding twelve of the world's most fascinating carpets.

Dorothy Armstrong's Threads of Empire is a spellbinding look at the history of the world through the stories of twelve carpets. Beautiful, sensuous, and enigmatic, great carpets follow power. Emperors, shahs, sultans and samurai crave them as symbols of earthly domination. Shamans and priests desire them to evoke the spiritual realm. The world's 1% hunger after them as displays of extreme status. And yet these seductive objects are made by poor and illiterate weavers, using the most basic materials and crafts; hedgerow plants for dyes, fibers from domestic animals, and the millennia-old skills of interweaving warps, wefts and knots.

In Threads of Empire, Armstrong tells the histories of some of the world's most fascinating carpets, exploring how these textiles came into being then were transformed as they moved across geography and time in the slipstream of the great. She shows why the world's powerful were drawn to them, but also asks what was happening in the weavers' lives, and how they were affected by events in the world outside their tent, village or workshop. In its wide-ranging examination of these dazzling objects, from the 5th century BCE contents of the tombs of Scythian chieftains, to the carpets under the boots of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill at the 1945 Yalta Peace Conference, Threads of Empire uncovers a new, hitherto hidden past right beneath our feet.

About the Author

Dr. DOROTHY ARMSTRONG is a historian of the material culture of South, Central and West Asia, and for the last decade has tried to penetrate the mysteries of Asian rugs. She has published, podcast and lectured widely on carpets. She was tutor at the Royal College of Art and Edinburgh College of Art, and from 2021 has been the Beattie Fellow in Carpet Studies at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. She is an avid collector of carpets and is as a result also an expert on clothes moths.

Critical Reviews

"Meticulously researched ... An intriguing, revelatory historical perspective." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A revelation, about the making of carpets, and of markets, and of aesthetic taste. This beautiful book balances Dorothy Armstrong's expertise and her enthralling storytelling perfectly. The tale of each carpet as she tells it is untidy and tragic and comical all at once." - Tessa Hadley, author, The Past and After the Funeral

"A wonderfully conceived and very engagingly written window onto global culture, history and politics through the prism of carpets. Products of unknown, unnamed and often illiterate artists of the highest skill, especially from the continent of Asia, these textiles have formed the home-settings of nomadic and settled peoples from lowly farmers to the highest aristocracy, across the world. Armstrong's enthusiasm, historical and technical command of her field, and her deep knowledge of so much of world history shines through like a bolt of enlivening sunshine." - Jaś Elsner, author of Roman Eyes: Visuality and Subjectivity in Art and Text

"Handwoven carpets have long been regarded as a hallmark of civilisation. Sought after by the rich and powerful alike as markers of status they have likewise been acquired as trophies by conquerors keen to cement their victories. This excellent study by Dorothy Armstrong, shows how, over millennia, this ultimate of status symbols has both defined and been defined by the political cultures that produced them." - Professor Ali Ansari Director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at St. Andrews University, Scotland, and regular contributor to the podcast The Rest is History.

"Dorothy Armstrong weaves intricate, intertwined and colourful histories from twelve storied carpets; exploring the feet that have walked on them, the hands they have passed through and the many ideas and meanings they have carried. This engaging book encourages us to lower our eyes and consider the many stories held in the patterned worlds beneath our feet." - Xa Sturgis, Director, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

"Who knew that carpets contained such a wealth of fascinating history? Dorothy Armstrong for one, and she shares a lifetime's passion with enviable elegance, weaving her way across centuries and continents. The vocabulary of storytelling is threaded with metaphors straight from the loom; this book shows us why." - Oliver Soden, author Masquerade: The Lives of Noel Coward

Publishing Information

Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pub date: 2025-06-17
Length: 368 pages

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