Books by Glenn Adamson

A groundbreaking and endlessly surprising history of how artisans created America, from the nation''s origins to the present day.At the center of the United States'' economic and social development, according to conventional wisdom, are industry and technology-while craftspeople and handmade objects are relegated to a bygone past. Renowned historian Glenn Adamson turns that narrative on its head in this innovative account, revealing makers'' central role in shaping America''s identity. Examine any phase of the nation''s struggle to define itself, and artisans are there-from the silversmith Paul Revere and the revolutionary carpenters and blacksmiths who hurled tea into Boston Harbor, to today''s ΓÇ£maker movement.ΓÇ¥ From Mother Jones to Rosie the Riveter. From Betsy Ross to Rosa Parks. From suffrage banners to the AIDS Quilt. Adamson shows that craft has long been implicated in debates around equality, education, and class. Artisanship has often been a site of resistance for oppressed people, such as enslaved African-Americans whose skilled labor might confer hard-won agency under bondage, or the Native American makers who adapted traditional arts into statements of modernity. Theirs are among the array of memorable portraits of Americans both celebrated and unfamiliar in this richly peopled book. As Adamson argues, these artisans'' stories speak to our collective striving toward a more perfect union. From the beginning, America had to be-and still remains to be-crafted.

Things matter. So why are we losing touch with them?From the former director of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York comes a timely and passionate case for the role of the well-designed object in the digital age. In this delightful exploration of craft in its many forms, curator and scholar Glenn Adamson explores how raw materials, tools, design and technique come together to produce objects of beauty and utility. A thoughtful meditation on the value of care and attention in an age of disappearing things, Fewer, Better Things invites us to reconnect with the physical world and its objects.

Provides an introduction to the way that artists working in various media think about craft. This book also includes historical case studies analysing craft's role in a variety of disciplines, including architecture, design, contemporary art, and the crafts themselves.

A collection for students of the key writings - classic and contemporary - on all aspects of Craft History, Theory & Practice

Today's artists have an unprecedented level of choice with regard to materials and methods available to them, yet the processes involved in making artworks are rarely addressed in books or exhibitions on art. This title sets out a history of trends in artistic production and the possible catalysts for the proliferation of production strategies.