In Search of the World's Finest Wools is a photographic search around the world to find the finest wools available and to meet the dedicated people who care for the animals and harvest the raw wool. From this precious commodity comes the unsurpassed wools used around the world. An ethnographic marriage of stunning imagery and authoritative text, this book reveals the nature of the animals, the lives of the farmers and nomadic shepherds that care for them, and the cultures and traditions that have enriched wool-producing societies for centuries, including the use of wool in traditional costume and for utility. In Search of the World's Finest Wools explores these wool-producing regions: *Greenland - Qiviut, the wool of the musk ox.From the stone age comes the rarest and most precious of all wools, a wool 'so subtle with qualities somewhere between the lustre of silk and the softness of cashmere' and a thermal quality eight times that of sheep's wool; *Mongolia - Cashmere goat wool, a wool of 'incomparable lightness and softness, yet with an unmatched body and warmth' and a domesticated history dating to 9,000 BCE; *Kyrgyzstan - Taewit goat wool, the product of a cross of the Kyrgyz goat with the Orenburg cashmere goat, discovered by the wider world only after the fall of the USSR; *Ladakh - Pashmina goat wool, the 'prince among Oriental wools' produced by goats that prefer life at 16,000 feet (5,000 m); *Scotland - Shetland sheep wool, its fine guard hairs, the product of 250 days of coastal wind and rain, give superior thermal, wind and moisture resistance; *Australia & New Zealand - Merino sheep wool, the finest and 'most noble of all wool breeds', the high-maintenance sheep produces the finest of all wools with a fibre as little as 11 microns in diameter; *South Africa - Mohair goat wool, not as fine as other wools but its structure gives it softness, strength, elasticity (no creases), and unparalleled lustre; *Peru - Vicuna wool, once the exclusive preserve of the Inca emperor, almost hunted to extinction in the 1960s, the 'princess of the Andes' produces wool that outranks Musk ox and cashmere. People have used wool in a surprising number of ways for thousands of years, though primarily to keep warm or protect their skin from the sun. The world's wool-producing societies have deep connections to their animals, and anyone who works with wool holds it in the highest esteem for its beautiful practicality. In Search of the World's Finest Wools is an excellent choice for tailors, knitters, weavers, rug purchasers, travellers and anyone interested in wool crafts, ethnography and culture.

"The Object of Labor" explores the personal, political, social, and economic meaning of work in the context of art and textile production. The ubiquity of cloth in everyday life, the historically resonant relationship of textile and cloth to labor, and the tumultuous drive of globalization make the issues raised by this publication of special interest today. The seventeen essays cover topics ranging from art-making practices to labor history and the effects of globalization as seen through art and labor. The artists' projects--twelve striking and beautiful eight-page, full color spreads--conduct parallel investigations into art, cloth, and work. The contributors explore, from historical and personal perspectives, such subjects as the charged history of offshore garment workers; the different systems of production and consumption in factories, homes, studios, and exhibitions; the revelation of class, gender, and sexuality through cloth, costume, and textile images; textile production as commemorative acts in South Africa, the United States, and India; transnationalism, cultural hybridity, and race in the work of individual artists; lost histories of garment production and embroidery; the physical act of art-making as labor; and the value of handmade and "technologically improved" objects. Essays by: Ingrid Bachmann, Carol Becker, Andries Botha, Lou Cabeen, Helen Cho, Alison Ferris, Nancy Gildart, bell hooks, Alan Howard, Mary Jane Jacob, Janis Jeffries, Neil MacInnis, Margo Mensing, Kevin Murray, Sadie Plant, Maureen Sherlock, and collectively by Viji Srinivasan, Skye Morrison, Laila Tyabji, and Dorothy Caldwell. Artist projects and portfolios by: Susie Brandt, Nick Cave, Park Chambers, Lisa Clark, Lia Cook, Ann Hamilton, Kimsooja, Barbara Layne and Sue Rowley, Lara Lepionka, Merrill Mason, Darrel Morris, Pepon Osorio, J. Morgan Puett and Iain Kerr, Karen Reimer, Yinka Shonibare, SubRosa, Christine Tarkowski, and Anne Wilson.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries large numbers of Scots emigrated to seek their fortunes abroad. Better educated than the English and with a strong Presbyterian ethic, they were unusually successful in business and politics. This was true for New Zealand as elsewhere. Ross & Glendining Ltd was founded in Dunedin in 1862, during the gold rush, by two contrasting characters: Caithness-born John Ross and Robert Glendining, from Dumfries. Initially a drapery importing business, it opened branches throughout New Zealand and warehouses in all the main centers. Careful management and efficient systems enabled the business to grow, despite strong competition from Australia. After the investment boom of the seventies, R&G began to diversify, investing in sheep runs, a woollen mill, other manufacturing, and even a coal mine. This history offers not only a portrait of a firm but a window on the development of the New Zealand economy and the emergence of a manufacturing sector.

One of the world's largest sellers of footwear, the Bata Company of Zlin, Moravia has a remarkable history that touches on crucial aspects of what made the world modern. In the twilight of the Habsburg Empire, the company Americanized its production model while also trying to Americanize its workforce. It promised a technocratic form of governance in the chaos of postwar Czechoslovakia, and during the Roaring Twenties, it became synonymous with rationalization across Europe and thus a flashpoint for a continent-wide debate. While other companies contracted in response to the Great Depression, Bata did the opposite, becoming the first shoe company to unlock the potential of globalization. As Bata expanded worldwide, it became an example of corporate national indifference, where company personnel were trained to be able to slip into and out of national identifications with ease. Such indifference, however, was seriously challenged by the geopolitical crisis of the 1930s, and by the cusp of the Second World War, Bata management had turned nationalist, even fascist. In the Kingdom of Shoes unravels the way the Bata project swept away tradition and enmeshed the lives of thousands of people around the world in the industrial production of shoes. Using a rich array of archival materials from two continents, the book answers how Bata's rise to the world's largest producer of shoes challenged the nation-state, democracy, and Americanization.

Women's emancipation through productive labour was a key tenet of socialist politics in post-World War II Yugoslavia. Mass industrialisation under Tito led many young women to join traditionally 'feminised' sectors, and as a consequence the textile sector grew rapidly, fast becoming a gendered symbol of industrialisation, consumption and socialist modernity. By the 1980s Yugoslavia was one of the world's leading producers of textiles and garments. The break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991, however, resulted in factory closures, bankruptcy and layoffs, forcing thousands of garment industry workers into precarious and often exploitative private-sector jobs. Drawing on more than 60 oral history interviews with former and current garment workers, as well as workplace periodicals and contemporary press material collected across Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia, Women and Industry in the Balkans charts the rise and fall of the Yugoslav textile sector, as well as the implications of this post-socialist transition, for the first time. In the process, the book explores broader questions about memories of socialism, lingering feelings of attachment to the socialist welfare system and the complexity of the post-socialist era. This is important reading for all scholars working on the history and politics of Yugoslavia and the Balkans, oral history, memory studies and gender studies.

In gold-rush Australia, social identity was in flux: gold promised access to fashionable new clothes, a grand home, and the goods to furnish it, but could not buy gentility. Needlework and Women's Identity in Colonial Australia explores how the wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters who migrated to the newly formed colony of Victoria used their needle skills as a powerful claim to social standing. Focusing on one of women's most common daily tasks, the book examines how needlework's practice and products were vital in the contest for social position in the turmoil of the first two decades of the Victorian rush from 1851. Placing women firmly at the center of colonial history, it explores how the needle became a tool for stitching together identity. From decorative needlework to household making and mending, women's sewing was a vehicle for establishing, asserting, and maintaining social status. Interdisciplinary in scope, Needlework and Women's Identity in Colonial Australia draws on material culture, written primary sources, and pictorial evidence, to create a rich portrait of the objects and manners that defined genteel goldfields living. Giving voice to women's experiences and positioning them as key players in the fabric of gold-rush society, this volume offers a fresh critical perspective on gender and textile history.

The apparel and textiles industry is one of the industries most affected by globalization, and involves complex relationships that are constantly evolving. This carefully-researched book, formally Plunkett's Apparel & Textiles Industry Almanac, covers exciting trends in apparel and textile supply chains; manufacturing; design; women's, men's and children's fashions; shoes; accessories; retailing; trade; distribution; technologies; and smart fabrics. It includes a thorough market analysis as well as our highly respected trends analysis. It also includes thousands of contacts for business and industry leaders, industry associations, Internet sites and other resources. In addition, this book features extensive statistical tables, an industry glossary and thorough indexes. We are careful to detail the latest developments in global trade agreements, third party logistics and retail chain stores, along with important news from China and other emerging nations. The corporate profiles section of the book includes our proprietary, in-depth profiles of the 350 leading companies in all facets of the apparel and textiles industry. Major retailers, distributors, manufacturers and designers are covered thoroughly. You'll find a complete overview, industry analysis and market research report in one superb, value-priced package.

WINNER OF THE 2015 BANCROFT PRIZE WINNER OF THE 2015 PHILIP TAFT PRIZE FINALIST FOR THE 2015 PULITZER PRIZE FOR HISTORY SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2015 CUNDHILL PRIZE IN HISTORICAL LITERATURE Economist BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015 'Knowledgeable and stunning' Orhan Pamuk 'A masterpiece of the historian's craft' The Nation For about 900 years, from 1000 to 1900, cotton was the world's most important manufacturing industry. It remains a vast business - if all the cotton bales produced in 2013 had been stacked on top of each other they would have made a somewhat unstable tower 40,000 miles high. Sven Beckert's superb new book is a history of the overwhelming role played by cotton in dictating the shape of our world. It is both a gripping narrative and a brilliant case history of how the world works.

Numerous clothing industries face highly dynamic environments, and growth in this environment depends upon both external and internal factors. External factors are represented by aggressive competition and volatile product demand. Internally, the industry must face an increasingly shorter life cycle of the product and the need to innovate both product and organizational development. The competitive advantage of the industry lies in its ability to design a value-creating system based on the management of both external and internal relationships. The successful management of these relationships relies not only on successful customer relationship management but also on effective product supply and demand upkeep. Management and Inter/Intra Organizational Relationships in the Textile and Apparel Industry provides emerging research exploring relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research underlining the complexity of management applications within the textile industry. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as consumer relationships, cultural identity, and organizational culture, this book is ideally designed for researchers, academicians, professionals, and students working in various disciplines including management, industrial organization, organizational behavior, human resource management, decision science, design science, and information and communication. Moreover, the book will provide insights and support executives and managers of the textile and apparel industry concerned with the ethic design, contamination, and the management relationships with workers, customers, suppliers, the community, and organizational development.

While the topic of sustainability in textile manufacture has been the subject of considerable research, much of this is limited to a focus on materials and practices and their ecological impact. Padovani and Whittaker offer a unique exploration of the textile industry in Europe from the perspective of social sustainability, shifting the focus from the materiality of textile production to the industry's relationships with the communities from which the products originate. Featuring six in-depth case studies from design entrepreneurs, artisans and textile businesses around Europe, from Harris Tweed in Scotland to luxury woollen mills in Italy, Sustainability and the Social Fabric explores how new centres of textile manufacturing have emerged from the economic decline in 2008, responding creatively and producing socially inclusive approaches to textile production. Case studies each represent a different approach to social sustainability and are supported by interviews with industry leaders and comparisons to the global textile industry. Demonstrating how some companies are rebuilding the local social fabric to encourage consumer participation through education, enterprise, health and wellbeing, the book suggests innovative business models that are economically successful and also, in turn, support wider societal issues.

The apparel and textiles industry is one of the industries most affected by globalization, and involves complex relationships that are constantly evolving. This carefully-researched book, formally Plunkett's Apparel & Textiles Industry Almanac, covers exciting trends in apparel and textile supply chains; manufacturing; design; women's, men's and children's fashions; shoes; accessories; retailing; trade; distribution; technologies; and smart fabrics. It includes a thorough market analysis as well as our highly respected trends analysis. It also includes thousands of contacts for business and industry leaders, industry associations, Internet sites and other resources. In addition, this book features extensive statistical tables, an industry glossary and thorough indexes. We are careful to detail the latest developments in global trade agreements, third party logistics and retail chain stores, along with important news from China and other emerging nations. The corporate profiles section of the book includes our proprietary, in-depth profiles of the 350 leading companies in all facets of the apparel and textiles industry. Major retailers, distributors, manufacturers and designers are covered thoroughly. You'll find a complete overview, industry analysis and market research report in one superb, value-priced package.

The scope of the study reported in this book entails understanding the constraints and providing potential diagnostics to Africa's leather sector, which is otherwise globally, one of the most lucrative agro-based industries in the world, estimated at over US$ 130Billion. One of the principle core thematic aspects of the leather sector is, characteristically, its long value chain with multiple socio-economic dimensions. These entail employability, creation of wealth, gender parity and rural development. Thusly, in an effort to stimulate scholarly discussion, the study argues that preemptively, the problems facing the leather value chain stratums are high losses, low value addition initiatives and unexplored opportunities that are synonymous with the Africa's leather industry. Indeed, the results of the research conceptualized opportunity management as a critical panacea towards value addition strategy for the leather sector in developing countries. In dealing with this concept, the book evaluated the various value chains phases and identified nine specific issues and variables drawn between value addition and the main leather strata. With this background, the study posed a main question and four sub questions to closely expound on related hypotheses and in lieu pursue four thematic aspects: trade, productivity, competitiveness, and innovation covered in twelve chapters of the book. Conclusively, the book manages to successfully conceptualize as a novelty that opportunity management is integral towards developing a leather value addition strategy for the developing countries with particular emphasis to Africa.

This is a brief story of the long agitation for textile unions in the South. To evaluate the contributions of textile unions and to determine whether they are socially desirable, it is necessary to know the history of the union movement and the effect unions have had in educating workers. Mitchell gives a clear, succinct account of the movement in the South. Originally published in 1931. A UNC Press Enduring Edition - UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

While the topic of sustainability in textile manufacture has been the subject of considerable research, much of this is limited to a focus on materials and practices and their ecological impact. Padovani and Whittaker offer a unique exploration of the textile industry in Europe from the perspective of social sustainability, shifting the focus from the materiality of textile production to the industry's relationships with the communities from which the products originate. Featuring six in-depth case studies from design entrepreneurs, artisans and textile businesses around Europe, from Harris Tweed in Scotland to luxury woollen mills in Italy, Sustainability and the Social Fabric explores how new centres of textile manufacturing have emerged from the economic decline in 2008, responding creatively and producing socially inclusive approaches to textile production. Case studies each represent a different approach to social sustainability and are supported by interviews with industry leaders and comparisons to the global textile industry. Demonstrating how some companies are rebuilding the local social fabric to encourage consumer participation through education, enterprise, health and wellbeing, the book suggests innovative business models that are economically successful and also, in turn, support wider societal issues. Essential reading for students of textiles, fashion, design and related subjects, this book will demonstrate how a business ecosystem that focuses on inclusive growth and social innovation can lead to sustained mutual benefit for textile industries and their local communities.

Bale o' Cotton: The Mechanical Art of Cotton Ginning offers a unique blend of fact and folklore about cotton ginning, the process that takes cotton from the field, separates fibers from seeds, and packages the lint into a bale for shipment to market. It traces the development of the industry, the equipment, and the techniques of this integral facet of American life from its English beginnings in 1793, through its heyday in the American South, to its present technological peak. Out of the long days spent in the gin plant, a rich oral tradition developed, which included a broad sense of general history and an understanding of worldwide markets, an appreciation for the music of the machine (especially the steam engine), legendary individuals, and a folklore based on practical jokes. But the language, traditions, and cultural practices that developed around the cotton gin are now rapidly becoming extinct as modern technology eliminates the risks, inventiveness, and close working relationships between ginners and machines. To document and preserve the memory of this way of life, Karen Gerhardt Britton has collected material from numerous interviews with ginners, inventors, laborers, and historians. The abundance of illustrations and the availability of never-before-published archival material, thanks to the generous cooperation of the ginning industry, make this a valuable and fascinating resource for historians and lay readers alike.

Little Germany takes us back to the nineteenth century, when Bradford, West Yorkshire, was the wool capital of the world. Over the centuries, Germany and Great Britain have been close trading partners. When Bradford became renowned for its rapidly expanding textile trade, prosperous German wool merchants entered the country and many of them settled in Bradford. These men, comparatively few in number but with great determination, influenced Bradford's markets with their knowledge of commerce and philanthropic culture. They were merchants who left their mark, men who built the palatial warehouses in Little Germany. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and throughout the nineteenth century, cottage industries had given way to industrialisation and factories replaced traditional production. Bradford grew from a country market town into an industrial city, with smoke-blackened buildings and a polluted landscape. It was a city of great wealth against abject poverty and slums. Workers came to Bradford in their thousands, attracted by the prospect of work. German pork butchers from Hohenlohe in south Germany settled in the industrial cities of Great Britain. Their cheap and tasty 'take-away' meals were popular with factory workers, who had no time to cook due to long working hours.

The textile manufacturing industry (NAICS 313) has played an important role in the history of the United States (US) and continues to be a major industrial employer, not only in the US, but also around the world. Textiles are mainly considered a component part of the supply chain, with end uses ranging from apparel to home textiles to industrial goods to medical textiles. Even though apparel is the largest end use of textiles, and its manufacture has increasingly moved offshore to low-cost labor countries, there remains a growing textile manufacturing industry in the US for capital and technological intensive products, such as non-wovens and those with military end uses. One unique aspect of textile manufacturing is that it includes sectors from agriculture, chemicals, industrial manufacturing, cutting-edge research and development in addition to the fashion aspects of apparel and home goods. It is highly dependent on economic conditions and consumer demand, and competition is primarily based on price. Another unique aspect of the textile manufacturing industry is its fragmented nature. Whereas a few major players define most industries, there are over 8,000 textile establishments in the US, and no major textile firm has more than 2% share of the market. The proposed book will include an overview of the industry and its supply chain including a brief overview of the manufacturing technologies of each sector. The book will also include an overview of the importance of the industry in US history and how the industry has changed over time including the movement to offshore manufacturing. An overview of new competitors, such as China and Mexico, will also be included. There will be a discussion of the competitive strategies that US manufacturers are using to compete with these countries. Outside market forces that impact the industry will be included as well as an overview of the regulations that impact the industry. Finally, the challenges, opportunities, and future outlook of the industry will be discussed. This section will also incorporate insight from the case study interviews to include differing perspectives.

From consumer boycotts and buycotts to social movement campaigns, examples of individual and collective actors forging political struggles on markets are manifold. The clothing market has been a privileged site for such contention, with global clothing brands and retailers being targets of consumer mobilization for the past 20 years. Labels and product lines now attest for the ethical quality of clothes, which has, in turn, given rise to ethical fashion. The Fight for Ethical Fashion unveils the actors and processes that have driven this market transformation through a detailed study of the Europe-wide coordinated campaign on workers' rights in the global textile industry - the Clean Clothes Campaign. Drawing on insights from qualitative fieldwork using a wide range of empirical sources, Philip Balsiger traces the emergence of this campaign back to the rise of 'consumer campaigns' and shows how tactics were adapted to market contexts in order to have retailers adopt and monitor codes of conduct. By comparing the interactions between campaigners and their corporate targets in Switzerland and France (two countries with a very different history of consumer mobilization for political issues), this ground-breaking book also reveals how one campaign can provoke contrasting reactions and forms of market change.

CONTENTS Chapter - 1. Introduction; Chapter - 2. Characteristics of Cotton Textile Processing Effluents; Sizing; Desizing; Scouring; Bleaching; Mercerizing; Dyeing; Printing; Finishing; Combined Effluent; Chapter - 3. Treatment of Cotton Textile Processing Effluents Chapter - 4. Charactristics and Treatment of Synthetic Textile Processing Effluents; Process and Characteristics of Effluents; Treatment; Chapter - 5. Knit Fabric Finishing; Chapter - 6. Characteristics and Treatment of Woollen Textile Processing Effluents; Chapter - 7. Recent Trends in Textile Waste Water Management; Chapter - 8. Reduction of Pollution Load; Waste segregation; Recovery & Reuse of Sizes and Other Chemicals; Substitution of Low-Pollution Load Chemicals; Judicious use of chemicals; Process changes; Economy in Water use; Chapter - 9. Recovery and Reuse of Sizes, Dyes and Other Chemicals; Recovery of PVA and other Sizing agents; Caustic soda Recovery; Recovery of Dyes; Reuse of Ozonated Dyebath; Recovery of Other Valuable materials; Recovery of Heat; Chapter - 10. Recycling and Reuse of Waste Water; Chapter - 11. Conservation and Reuse of Water; Part - II.TREATMENT METHODS; Chapter - 12 Treatment Methods - An Introduction; Chapter - 13. Preliminary and Primary Treatments; Screening; Equalization; Neutralization; Neutralization of Acidic Wastes; Neutralization of Alkaline Wastes; Coagulation; Coagulants; Auxiliary chemicals; Flocculation - Aids; Coagulation & Flocculation Equipments; Merits & Demerits of Coagulation; Sedimentation; Floatation (Dissolved Air Floatation); Chapter - 14. Secondary Biological Treatment; Activated Sludge Process; Trickling Filtration; Aerated Lagoons; Oxidation Ponds; Anaerobic Digestion; Sludge Disposal; Removal of Interfering Substances; Chapter - 15. Tertiary Treatment; Multimedia Filtration; Chemical Coagulation; Chemical Precipitation; Disinfection; Ozonation; Activated Carbon Adsorption; Membrane Technology; Dialysis / Electro Dialysis; Evaporation; Chapter - 16.Advanced Methods for the Treatment of Textile Processing Waste Water; Advanced Oxidation Processes; Ozone Treatment; Adsorption; Membrane Technology; Dialysis / Electrodialysis; Ion Exchange; Evaporation; Crystallization; Freezing; Some Patented Technics for Color Removal; Bio-mass based Technologies; Cutting-EdgeTreatment Methods; Chapter - 17. Advanced Oxidation Processes; Non-Photo chemical Methods; Ozonation; Ozone/Hydrogen Peroxide Process; Fenton Method; Homogeneous Photochemical Oxidation Processes; Vacuum-UV Photo Oxidation; UV and Ozone; UV and Hydrogen Peroxide; UV, Ozone and Hydrogen Peroxide; Photo Fenton Method; Heterogeneous Photochemical Oxidation Processes; Chapter - 18. Ozone Treatment; Reactions of Ozone in Waste Water Treatment; Oxidative Reactions and Color Removal; BOD Reduction; Sludge Reduction; Advancements in Ozone Treatment; Chapter - 19. Activated Carbon Adsorption; Chapter - 20. Membrane Technology; Micro Filtration; Ultra Filtration; Nano Filtration; Reverse Osmosis; Disc and Tube Module; Membrane Bio-Reactors; Part - III. ANALYSIS OF TEXTILE PROCESSING EFFLUENTS; Chapter - 21 Purpose of Examination; Chapter - 22.Collection of Waste Water samples; Chapter - 23. Recording of Results; Chapter - 24. Analytical Methods - Important Notes; Chapter - 25. Parameters to be determined on Textile Processing Effluents; Chapter - 26. General Physico-Chemical Measurements; Chapter - 27. Measurement of Organic Pollution; Chapter - 28. Inorganic Constituents - Non Metallics; Chapter - 29. Inorganic Constituents - Metals; Chapter - 30. Miscellaneous Determination; Appendix; Index

Like cotton, indigo has defied its humble origins. Left alone it might have been a regional plant with minimal reach, a localized way of dyeing textiles, paper, and other goods with a bit of blue. But when blue became the most popular color for the textiles that Britain turned out in large quantities in the eighteenth century, the South Carolina indigo that colored most of this cloth became a major component in transatlantic commodity chains. In "Red, White, and Black Make Blue," Andrea Feeser tells the stories of all the peoples who made indigo a key part of the colonial South Carolina experience as she explores indigo's relationships to land use, slave labor, textile production and use, sartorial expression, and fortune building.
In the eighteenth century, indigo played a central role in the development of South Carolina. The popularity of the color blue among the upper and lower classes ensured a high demand for indigo, and the climate in the region proved sound for its cultivation. Cheap labor by slaves--both black and Native American--made commoditization of indigo possible. And due to land grabs by colonists from the enslaved or expelled indigenous peoples, the expansion into the backcountry made plenty of land available on which to cultivate the crop. Feeser recounts specific histories--uncovered for the first time during her research--of how the Native Americans and African slaves made the success of indigo in South Carolina possible. She also emphasizes the material culture around particular objects, including maps, prints, paintings, and clothing. "Red, White, and Black Make Blue" is a fraught and compelling history of both exploitation and empowerment, revealing the legacy of a modest plant with an outsized impact.