Cotton: The Biography of a Revolutionary Fiber

(Paperback)

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Description

In the tradition of Mark Kurlansky's Cod and Salt, this endlessly revealing book reminds us that the fiber we think of as ordinary is the world's most powerful cash crop, and that it has shaped the destiny of nations. Ranging from its domestication 5,500 years ago to its influence in creating Calvin Klein's empire and the Gap, Stephen Yafa's Cotton gives us an intimate look at the plant that fooled Columbus into thinking he'd reached India, that helped start the Industrial Revolution as well as the American Civil War, and that made at least one bug-the boll weevil-world famous. A sweeping chronicle of ingenuity, greed, conflict, and opportunism, Cotton offers "a barrage of fascinating information" (Los Angeles Times).

Reviews

"I have to hand it to Mr. Yafa. Cotton rules."The Wall Street Journal

"With wit and intelligence, Yafa demonstrates how a good deal of history can be learned by following a single thread."The Washington Post

"A comprehensive and often surprising history [of a crop that changed the world]."USA Today

Author Bio

Stephen Yafa, a novelist, playwright, and award-winning screenwriter, has written for Playboy, Details, Rolling Stone, and the San Francisco Chronicle.