The craft reader / edited by Glenn Adamson.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From the canonical texts of the Arts and Crafts Movement to the radical thinking of today's "DIY" movement, from theoretical writings on the position of craft in distinction to Art and Design to how-to texts from renowned practitioners, from feminist histories of textiles to descriptions of the innovation born of necessity in Soviet factories and African auto-repair shops... The Craft Reader presents the first comprehensive anthology of writings on modern craft.
Covering the period from the Industrial Revolution to today, the Reader draws on craft practice and theory from America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The world of craft is considered in its full breadth -- from pottery and weaving, to couture and chocolate-making, to contemporary art, architecture and curation. The writings are themed into sections and all extracts are individually introduced, placing each in its historical, cultural and artistic context.
Bringing together an astonishing range of both classic and contemporary texts, The Craft Reader will be invaluable to any student or practitioner of Craft and also to readers in Art and Design.

AUTHORS INCLUDE: Theodor Adorno, Anni Albers, Amadou H¿mpat¿ B¿, Charles Babbage, Roland Barthes, Andrea Branzi, Alison Britton, Rafael Cardoso, Johanna Drucker, Charles Eames, Salvatore Ferragamo, Kenneth Frampton, Alfred Gell, Walter Gropius, Tanya Harrod, Martin Heidegger, Patrick Heron, Bernard Leach, Esther Leslie, W. R. Lethaby, Lucy Lippard, Adolf Loos, Karl Marx, William Morris, Robert Morris, L¿szl¿ Moholy-Nagy, Stefan Muthesius, George Nakashima, Octavio Paz, Grayson Perry, M. C. Richards, John Ruskin, Raphael Samuel, Ellen Gates Starr, Debbie Stoller, Alexis de Tocqueville, Lee Ufan, Frank Lloyd Wright

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Part 1 How To
• Sectional introduction
• 1 The Teacher's Handbook of Slöjd
• 2 Elements of Handicraft and Design
• 3 The Wheelwright's Shop
• 4 On Weaving
• 5 "Building a Log Cabin"
• 6 Stitch'n'Bitch: the Knitter's Handbook
• Part 2 Craft and The Industrial Revolution
• Sectional introduction
• 7 On the Economy of Machines and Manufactures
• 8 Artisans and Machinery
• 9 Democracy in America
• 10 Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers
• 11 Capital
• 12 Labor and Monopoly Capitalism: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century
• 13 "The Workshop of the World: Steam Power and Hand Technology in Mid-Victorian Britain"
• 14 "Technological Innovation and Design Economics in Furniture Manufacture"
• 15 Artistic America
• 16 Collected Writings
• 17 "Art and the Machine"
• 18 "Building Materials," Neue Freie Presse (Aug. 28, 1898), reprinted in Loos, Speaking Into the Void: Collected Essays 1897-1900 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982)
• 19 "Handwerk/Kunsthandwerk"
• Part 3 Modern Craft: Idealism and Reform
• Sectional Introduction
• 20 The Stones of Venice
• 21 "The Revival of Handicraft"
• 22 Form in Civilization: Collected Papers on Art and Labour
• 23 "Art and Labor"
• 24 "The Work Ahead of Us", "The Artist as an Organizer of Everyday Life" and "The Problem of the Relationship Between Man and Object"
• 25 "The Way of Craftsmanship"
• 26 A Potter's Book
• 27 "Religious Ideas in Craftsmanship"
• 28 Indian Handicrafts
• 29 "Initiation and the Crafts"
• 30 In Praise of Hands: Contemporary Crafts of the World
• 31 Centering
• 32 Craftsman Lifestyle: The Gentle Revolution
• 33 The Soul of A Tree: A Master Woodworker's Reflections
• 34 "The Long Shadow of William Morris: Paradigmatic Problems of Twentieth-Century American Furniture"
• Part 4 The Presence of Craft in The Age of Mass Production
• Sectional introduction
• 35 The Shoemaker of Dreams
• 36 "Crafting Grand Cru Chocolates in Contemporary France"
• 37 "From Peasant to Artisan: Motor Mechanics in a Nigerian Town"
• 38 "Modes and Resources of Adhocism"
• 39 "Destiny World: Textile Casualties in Southern Nigeria"
• 40 "On a Particular Kind of Love and the Specificity of Soviet Production"
• 41 "Plastic Toys and Urban Craft in South Asia"
• 42 "Original Copies"
• 43 "What is Cybernetics?"
• 44 "Individualized Automation"
• 45 Abstracting Craft: The Practiced Digital Hand
• 46 "Digital Artisans Manifesto"
• 47 "Craft Versus Design: Moving Beyond a Tired Dichotomy."
• Part 5 Craft In Theory: Workmanship, Essence, Status
• Sectional Introduction
• 48 The Nature and Art of Workmanship
• 49 "Forms in the Realms of Matter"
• 50 Rhythm
• 51 "African Art: Where the Hand Has Ears"
• 52 "Yoruba Artistic Criticism"
• 53 "The Thing"
• 54 "Rappel a l'Ordre: The Case for the Tectonic"
• 55 "Walter Benjamin: Traces of Craft"
• 56 "Functionalism Today
• 57 "Art and Craft"
• 58 "The Crafts in Relation to Contemporary Art"
• 59 "Art and Work"
• 60 "Comment"
• 61 The Maker's Eye
• Part 6 Craft in Action: The Everyday, Art and Design
• Sectional introduction
• 62 "The Enchantment of Technology and the Technology of Enchantment"
• 63 The Mande Blacksmiths
• 64 "Toys"
• 65 "Making Something From Nothing (toward a Definition of Women's 'Hobby Art')"
• 66 "The Creation of Femininity"
• 67 "There's No Place Like Home: Home Dressmaking and Creativity in the Jamaican Community of the 1940s to the 1960s"
• 68 "House-Trained Objects: Notes Towards Writing an Alternative History of Modern Art"
• 69 "The New Ceramic Presence"
• 70 "How I Spent My Summer Vacation or, Art and Politics in Nevada, Berkeley, San Francisco and Utah"
• 71 "Some Notes on the Phenomenology of Making: The Search for the Motivated"
• 72 The Art of Encounter
• 73 "A Refuge for Artists Who Play It Safe" and "Let the Artisans Craft Our Future"
• 74 "The Manifesto of the Bauhaus"
• 75 "Education and the Bauhaus"
• 76 Shaping America's Products
• 77 "A Ceramist Speaks on Design"
• 78 "The Making of a Craftsman"
• 79 "The New Handicrafts"
• Part 7 Curatorial Approaches
• Sectional Introduction
• 80 "Affectivity and Entropy: Production Aesthetics in Contemporary Sculpture"
• 81 "Craftsmen in the Factory of Images"
• 82 "And What Is Your Title?"
• 83 "Craft Hard, Die Free: Radical Curatorial Strategies for Craftivism in Unruly Contexts"
• 84 "The Politics of Craft: A Roundtable"
• Annotated Guide to Further Reading
• General Bibliography
• Index

Author notes provided by Syndetics