Threads of Empire
A History of the World in Twelve Carpets
Published on 27. February 2025
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-1-3996-1422-1 (ISBN)
Description
A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2025
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, fibres from domestic animals, and the millennia-old skills of interweaving warps, wefts and knots.
In Threads of Empire, Dorothy 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.
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, fibres from domestic animals, and the millennia-old skills of interweaving warps, wefts and knots.
In Threads of Empire, Dorothy 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.
Reviews / Votes
Vivid . . . glittering * New Yorker, Best Books of 2025 * 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 * A beguiling tour . . . The book displays deep learning, endless curiosity - and a conviction that seemingly mute objects can be anything but * Wall Street Journal * Fascinating . . . Retrieves something of the history so long trodden underfoot. -- Michael Prodger * New Statesman * 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 * A fascinating exploration of the part twelve carpets have played in world events. Carpets, usually woven by nameless women, have been desired throughout history by sultans and holy men, tycoons and tyrants, and their histories shed light on power dynamics across the ages . . . the book contains exquisite images and descriptions of some of the rarest and most important carpets ever made . . . Always at the forefront of Armstrong's accounts of these carpets are their anonymous makers: craftspeople, prisoners, women and children - marginalised, often itinerant, almost always on the wrong side of history -- Lucy Moore * Literary Review * Whether you are a consummate carpet connoisseur or a complete carpet newbie, I defy you not to get wrapped up in Armstrong's beautifully crafted book. An utterly all-encompassing and life-affirming read -- Helena Gumley-Mason, Head of Carpets and Tapestries at Bonhams Armstrong steers us in pursuit of shoals of apparent red herrings, invariably returning to the point of departure with a cleverly honed message. Each chapter is a woven masterpiece of unexpected twists and lightly worn research -- Berrin Torolsan * World of Interiors * Beautifully written and ceaselessly entertaining. If you read one book about carpets this year, make it this one -- Alexander Larman, author * POWER AND GLORY * 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 -- Jas Elsner, author * ROMAN EYES * I am much enjoying this absorbing history of the world through the stories of twelve notable carpets. It tells engrossing tales of emperors, shahs, sultans and samurai, as well as the poor illiterate weavers who made them, and in the process sheds surprising light on the workings of empire -- Caroline Sanderson * The Bookseller * A carpet has many stories to tell, from the time and place where it was woven by hand through to the time and place where it was used and cherished. This book helps us to locate that object in a unique way thanks to the many layered perspective that the author offers interweaving the personal and global, the political and the cultural, the historic and the intangible into a narrative that puts carpets, perhaps unknowingly, at the centre of the human experience -- Ben Evans, editor * Hali Magazine * 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, these ultimate status symbols have both defined and been defined by the political cultures that produced them -- Ali M. Ansari, author * IRAN * Meticulously researched . . . An intriguing, revelatory historical perspective -- Kirkus (starred review)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Orion Publishing Co
Product notice
Trade binding
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 38 mm
Weight
594 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-3996-1422-1 (9781399614221)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Dorothy Armstrong is a historian of the material culture of South, Central and West Asia. She has taught at the Royal College of Art, Edinburgh College of Art and the University of Oxford. She was the Beattie Fellow in Carpet Studies at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, where she is now honorary research fellow. Threads of Empire is her first book.