Description: Exploring the intersections between the culture of the wool broadcloth industry and the imaginative literature of the early modern period, this study shows how the culture of the cloth industry was intrinsically connected to the development of emerging English nationalism. Each chapter ties a particular genre with a specific issue of the cloth industry, demonstrating the distinct work different literary genres contributed to the "culture of cloth."
Review Quotes: '... an intelligent and interesting book.' Parergon '... for anyone with an interest in early modern national identity or the ways in which cloth and clothing may bear and reproduce social meaning, this is important reading.' Renaissance Studies 'The Culture of Cloth is thoroughly researched and ably demonstrates its central premise: the wool broadcloth industry was central to early modern England's self-definition as a nation. It is a significant strength that this book treats not only a number of areas of the cloth trade but also the various crises that plagued them... an important study well worth reading by those engaged in early modern English studies or in the study of nationalism in general.' Sixteenth Century Journal