The handloom-often no more than a bundle of sticks and a few lengths of cordage-has been known to almost all cultures for thousands of years. Eric Broudy places the wide variety of handlooms in historical context. What influenced their development? How did they travel from one geographic area to another, or were they invented independently by different cultures? How have modern cultures adapted ancient weaving skills and methods?

Broudy shows how people in virtually every culture have woven on handlooms. He highlights the incredible technical achievement of cultures that created magnificent textiles with the crudest of tools and demonstrates that modern technology has done nothing to surpass their skill or inventiveness. A classic work that is as singularly informative as when it was first published.