Description: Scotland's Harris Tweed, famously "hand woven in the Outer Hebrides," transformed national identities through two turbulent centuries. The culture and history of home weavers turning the color of their landscape into material for markets on the other side of the world form an integral part of a globe spanning story involving wars, famine, migrations, industrialization, and modernization.
Brief description: Susan Walcott is Professor Emerita at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Degrees from Swarthmore, Rutgers and Indiana University were in history and geography, specializing in China and East Asian modernization.