Blue Jeans

 

Blue Jeans is a collection of short essays and reminiscences by Carolyn Purnell about a ubiquitous and often overlooked item in everyone's landscape in every part of the world, humble blue denim jeans. Due out 12th Jan 2023 from Bloomsbury Academic, it's 160 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats (ebook currently available as of Dec 2022). 

This is one of a series of books on everyday items called "Object Lessons" which team writers' observations and experiences with material foci which make up our lives: recipes, stickers, bookshelves, bulletproof vests, traffic, TVs, and trees to give a few examples. Currently there are 80 books available on a wide variety of objects and I've been impressed with the quality of the writing and frankly, the profundity, to be found in contemplation of these everyday objects.

The author does a very good job of first objectifying and deconstructing the concept of jeans - what they are, where they came from (which includes fascinating and not entirely comfortable cultural history), how they came to be part of the daily life of virtually every human on the planet, and how they've shaped, changed, and broken social barriers.

There's a solid bibliography included with resources for further reading as well as a cross referenced index.

I have enjoyed a number of the books in this series. This one is erudite and thought provoking. It's a worthwhile addition to the series as a whole. The author has included some relevant historical photos, but it's the text that stands in central focus.

Four and a half stars. This would be an excellent choice for school or public library acquisition as well as home reading.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.