Glenn Adamson's last book, Thinking Through Craft, offered an influential account of craft's position within modern and contemporary art. Now, in his engaging sequel, The Invention of Craft, his theoretical discussion of skilled work is extended back in time and across numerous disciplines.Adamson searches out the origins of modern craft, locating its emergence in the period of the industrial revolution. He demonstrates how craft was invented as industry's "other", a necessary counterpart to ideas of progress and upheaval. In the process, the magical and secretive culture of artisans was gradually dominated through division and explication. This left craft with an oppositional stance, a traditional or anti-modern position.The Invention of Craft ranges widely across media, from lock-making, wood-carving and iron-casting to fashion, architecture and design. It also moves back and forth between periods, from the 18th century to the present day, demonstrating how contemporary practice can be informed through the study of modern craft in its moment of invention.

A fascinating companion piece to Adamson's Thinking Through Craft, also published by Bloomsbury

The Invention of CraftIntroductionPart One: ManipulationThe Centre HoldsThe Carved and the FlatThe Undisciplined ArtisanPoor Plain and Paltry: The Decline of CarvingThe Cutting EdgeThe Hands of OthersPart Two: MysteryThe Age of the RevealPorcelain: A Modern ArcanumSleights of HandAn Elastic AgeExplained Away: Craft and Cultural ImprovementThe Task of Re-EnchantmentThe New ArcanistsPart Three: MechanicalAll Things But A SelfState of NatureReplication and the Industrial ArtisanThe Reproductive ContinuumAnalogue PracticeIn and Out of TouchPart Four: MemoryCraft as Memory WorkDismantling RuskinUnited and IndustriousAffective RelationsStitches in TimeIndex