The Book of Looms: A History of the Handloom from Ancient Times to the Present
Broudy, Eric

Softcover $28.95
ISBN 0-87451-649-8
University Press of New England, 1979.
176 pages.

Back cover: "The handloom--often no more than a bundle of sticks and a few lengths of cordage--has been known to almost all cultures for thousands of years. Eric Broudy places the wide variety of handlooms in historical context. What influenced their development? How did they travel from one geographic area to another? Were they invented independently by different cultures? How have modern cultures improved on ancient weaving skills and methods?

Broudy shows how virtually every culture, no matter how primitive, has woven on handlooms. He highlights the incredible technical achievement of primitive cultures that created magnificent textiles with the crudest of tools and demonstrates that modern technology has done nothing to surpass their skill or inventiveness.

ERIC BROUDY is a free-lance writer and editor living in Barrington, Rhode Island."