No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting (Hardcover)

~ Anne Macdonald (Author) "The Mayflower foremothers' busily knitting on deck in route to the New World creates a picturesque scene, but there is no recorded proof that it's..." (more)
Key Phrases: knitting song, knitting contest, few knitters, Red Cross, New York, Civil War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Drawn from diaries, letters and personal reminiscences, No Idle Hands tells an intimate and sometimes hair-raising story of hand knitting in America from Colonial times onward. Women knit through the hardships of covered wagon travel across the West. They knit to save their husbands and sons from freezing to death on battlefields. Shell-shocked men knit to save their sanity in hospitals during both world wars. No Idle Hands documents the importance knitting has had in American life. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

About the Author

Historian Anne L. Macdonald, the former head of the History Department at the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C. is also the author of Feminine Ingenuity: Women and Invention in America (1994) and Perrot: The Story of a Library (2006). --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 484 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st edition (August 12, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345339061
• ISBN-13: 978-0345339065
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #161,682 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars full and very readable, October 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting (Paperback)

This book describes the types of things that women (and sometimes men and children) knitted, the situations in which they learned, and how knitting contributed to their pleasure, financial survival, or feeling of political or social significance from the colonial period through the late 1980's, thus spanning the American Revolution, early nationhood, the westward movement and women's broadening education, both sides of the Civil War, both World Wars, and more recent generations. Setting knitting in the context of surrounding history, including such elements as wars, education, fashions, sports trends, and politics, _No Idle Hands_ would be valueable both to the ordinary knitter wanting a better idea of the past of his or her hobby and to a student of women's history. Although it contains no full patterns, it does have many excerpts from books, magazines, plays, diaries, and other writings that discussed knitting, and it has a bibliographty and index that together can help one trace sources for some of the patterns for items mentioned in the book; although some of these sources are obviously in historical societies and other out-of-the-way places, others are published sources that today's reader/knitter can buy.

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite books, December 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting (Paperback)

Reading the reviews, I can understand why a non-knitter would not be charmed by this book. This book is by, for and about knitters. Whenever I'm bogged down with my knitting, I pick this book up again, seeking inspiration from 200 years of American knitters. The book is delightfully written, with lots of original source quotations, and allows us to peek into the day-to-day lives of colonial knitters, revolutionary war knitters, civil war knitters, depression era knitters, etc. It gives one a strong sense of women's role in American society at different times, reminds us (often amusingly) about fads and trends, and shows how wars shape lives beyond the battlefields. It's a wonderful book. My only regret is that it doesn't have more photographs of knitters and old knit garments.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You are part of a looooong tradition..., July 5, 2001

By	L. Swanson (Iowa City, IA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting (Paperback)

if you are a knitter. This book was a pleasure to read and really gave me a sense of being connected to generations and generations of women making warm things for the ones they loved. I was surprised to read about all the socks that were patriotically hand-knitted for soldiers during war years, right up through what we would consider to be more 'modern' times. Can you imagine the government asking women to knit socks for soldiers nowadays?! I now feel a compulsion to learn to knit socks - if the kids and old men could do it then, I can certainly learn to do it now!

If you are a fan of 'real life' history - not about politics and empires, but about individuals and how they lived their lives - you will enjoy this book. And you will enjoy it even more if you knit.