Customer Reviews

Shoes: The Complete Sourcebook

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I happened upon this book in the bookstore, and also recently saw it mentioned in Harper's Bazar. All they say is that it is a "comprehensive history of footware." What they fail to mention is that all the pictures are illustrations. There is not one single color photograph of an original shoe. If you check the product description above that Amazon provides, it does tell you that it has illustrations, but many people don't know to look there.

While the drawings are nicely done, they didn't give me the same thrill that seeing an actual photo of an original shoe would have. The pictures on the cover are exactly the same type of drawing and the same type of composition that you will see of other shoes in the book. I can understand having drawings of shoes from hundreds of years ago, but not having any photos of modern shoes seems a cop out.

The book is informative, but I think it is in no way "complete." It gives an overview of shoes from different eras, but does not scratch much beyond the surface. So, you get a little of everything and some representative pictures of the average footware, but not a good sense of what might be unique about a particular time period beyond what you can see for yourself in the illustrations.

I've read other books on fashion history that do a better job than this book in covering a wide range of time periods (such as Decades of Beauty). However, these books did not contain only shoes. I have yet to find a book about shoes that has both good photographs and informative text.

So, due to lack of competition, some people may want to check this book out because there isn't anything else out there. But, I would not reccomend buying it sight unseen. I think that this book would be too elementary for a fashion historan or someone into the history of shoes, but too boring for the average person to want to buy. I definitely would not recommend it for someone with a shoe fetish. It was worth the time I spent looking through it at the bookstore because of some of the text, but mostly because of the lack of photos I did not buy it.

I waffled between 4 and 5 stars for this. I think Peacock could do with some slightly more accurate titles. This is a history of western European shoes, with ancient Mesopotamia, Greece and Egypt thrown in for length. Beyond those, there is nothing on even eastern Europe, let alone Asia, Africa, etc. I also suspect from his books that Peacock does not really approve of our casual age. I saw only a single tennis shoe; none of the clogs and earth shoes that were so typical of the late 1960s and early 1970s; and none of the elaborate athletic shoes. Peacock does say that he is focusing chiefly on fashionable shoes, but I think that the high-end athletic shoes qualify as designer models, even if the other don't.

Given that, it's wonderful for what it does cover. Men's shoes are included. My favorite part is the ancient shoes; I have never seen such a variety illustrated.

The pages have small but clear drawings of usually 7 or 8 shoes per page, with minimal labelling. More detailed labelling follows. The time length covered by each section varies; as one might expect, shorter period are covered for more recent shoes. This is not as lush as the photographic collections of shoes, but I think it's more helpful as a history, especially for older styles which may have been reconstructed from fragments.

The introduction gives a brief history of the development of the shoes. There is a timeline where the shoes are reproduced as outline drawings to get a idea of the flow of change. This is followed by a concise history of designers and companies, and a bibliography.

So, it doesn't have a scholarly historical text, I don't recommend it for people as a book for gaping over startling shoes, but it is a very good visual history.

You really must give thanks to the author for having given us this book. As usual it is peerless in the degree of historical accuracy and detail that his illustrations unfailingly provide. Morever, it is one of the rare books that give us as much insight into men's footwear as it does into the history of women's footwear.

Of course it would have been nice to have detailed photographs of original ancient footwear or even those from a century or two ago. Sadly, many specimens have not survived at all or at often at best are in poor condition and are kept hidden from regular open exhibition at textile museums that do own them due to their fragility. In most cases the original appearances of the footwear have to be reconstructed using paintings and published period sources along with a dash of imagination. The results are illustrations that bring to life what the historic examples would have looked like to a far greater degree than pictures of old footwear delapidated beyond recognition.

Granted these inevitable limitations, the splendid size and quality of the illustrations makes this a tour de force vastly superior to anything else likely to go into print for many years, if not decades, to come

Fans of the shoe, whether they be fashion-oriented or art-oriented, will welcome John Peacock's fabulous book Shoes: The Complete Sourcebook, which holds over 2,000 illustrations to accompany a comprehensive history of shoes. Another plus: both men's and women's shoes are covered, from the earliest known shoes to modern times; and plenty of color accompany a chronological history which covers footwear trends, manufacture, and influences on changing styles. If only one fashion or art book on shoes were to be chosen for a discriminating library, it should be Peacock's: he leaves nothing out.

The purpose of this particular purchase was research. I intend to start my own boot business. The book has a great deal of history on shoe making so, I found it interesting. The book was delivered in great condition.

This seems to be an informative and interesting book... however, it isn't at all what I expected.

Somehow, I anticipated some photos, but the book is full of simple drawings in limited color, and very limited perspective instead. The writing is descriptive of the shoe drawn, plus an outline (which I found unnecessary, the text could have been placed next to the drawing so I wouldn't have to flip back and forth to visualize and analyze) but there is little or no history (other than in the introduction) as to the how's or why's of the styles, trends, construction or materials, environmental or social situation at the time, or of the manufacturer/cobblers of the time, which for me would have been of great interest.

It also has the word 'sourcebook' in the title.... which I took to mean as a source for information on shoes and manufacturers. There is a limited section in the back that gives a brief synopsis of mostly modern shoe manufacturer's biographies.... but no 'sources'.

The book is of general interest to a shoe fan, but did not meet my expectations at all. I am a little disappointed. I'm sure I'll get over it and learn to love it for what it does have...

I had searched the internet for a program I was presenting on the history of shoes. Wish I had had this book before the program. Excellent resource. Beautiful - would make a nice coffee table book.

The book is generaly nice. I had no idea that the shoes are painted not photographed.
Although it is more artistic, some of the beauty of the more modern shoes is lost.