Fullbright seminar: Fabric of War - A Hidden History of the Global Wool Trade
In the interdisciplinary spirit of the ANU Wool Seminars, 1957-1959, this presentation showcases how material culture, film, digital media, and a wealth of primary and secondary sources contribute to a project that is, at its heart, a trans-national commodity history. In considering the logistics of preparation and sourcing for war, historians have tended to focus on steel, gunpowder, and food. But a century of cold climate warfare from the mid-1800s depended too on another staple: wool. Its story is often fragmented and obscured within various national histories. One key aspect of the project explores the close, often contentious, ties between Australia - the center of the world’s wool market - and the United States - one of its principal customers. Fabric of War represents the collaborative efforts of Madelyn Shaw, a museum curator and historian of the textile industries, and Trish FitzSimons, documentary filmmaker and social historian.