I would have given this book two and a half stars if I could have. It's not bad, but it's of much more interest to knitters than anyone who is looking for social history. For one thing, it fairly often goes into details about knitting that a nonknitter or even a beginning knitter wouldn't get. For another, the author often seems more interested in quaint period detail than in history.

For the most part, this book just enumerates what women knitted in each period of history. It gets repetitive, especially when it comes to the wartime knitting. The story is pretty much the same during each war: Women got together in societies and knit tons and tons of socks.

She obviously did quite a bit of research, but doesn't draw many conclusions or put the information together in a compelling way. She piles on a lot of repetitive detail long after her point is made.

I can see why some people thought this was a good read. Her writing style is conversational and informal, gossipy at times. But I found it tiresome. She likes to "overuse" "quotes." She also writes almost entirely in loooonnnng sentences with a million clauses so that by the end of the sentence you forget what she was trying to say. Sometimes she even forgets to end the sentence.

I'm looking forward to reading The Age of Homespun by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Her work also includes a lot of repetitive detail and tends to be dry, but she usually unearths some interesting facts and draws noteworthy conculsions.

I originally borrowed the above book from my knitting teacher and thought to myself I would love to have this in my collection of craft books etc.

That was about five years ago before I even dreamed about a pc computer no less used Amazon[.com] books. So I have been living my fantasy buying all my dream books.

About the book. Many references to people, places and things.
I was fascinated by a knitted baby blanked called a Remsen Quilt originated with the World Church Services. To make a long story short I tracked down the woman they wrote about in a nursing home in Conn. and she wrote me a lovely letter. She had no idea where the name came from but they knitted themselves into oblivion for charity.

So if after all that time I am still thinking about that book It must be a good one. Happy to say I ordered it used today.
Mary Young, New Hampshire

This book is a wonderful examination of the social history of knitting. Knitting for family has always been a requirement of any woman. But, this book revels how woman across America knitted items in support of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, WWI and WWI. In fact, there is currently a program to knit scarves in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Knitting for charity is also discussed. When our governments can not, or will not, provide for the needy; American's women have.