Overview

From silver spoons to silver bullets, silver permeates our everyday culture and language. For millennia we've used it to buy what we need, adorn our bodies and trumpet our social status. Silver vanquishes our insecurities, as well as vampires, werewolves and our smelly socks. Once valued primarily for its beauty and rarity, silver is now also exploited for its chemistry; while it used to lubricate markets, bolster dowries and pay armies, now it permeates our electronics, textiles and medical devices. Featuring many glistening illustrations of silver in nature and art, jewellery, film, advertising and popular culture, this is a superb overview of a metal both precious and useful, with a rich and eventful history.

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9781780237565

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Reviews

Shen has the passion, turn of phrase, and international expertise to write a book about the history of humanity's use of silver and how it has impacted languages, cultures, science, economics, and politics. While most people are familiar with silver coins, jewelry, tableware, and bullets, Shen also uncovers the use of silver in medicines, electronics, medical devices, and modern clothing. Even though silver has always symbolized purity, Shen firmly elucidates that its acquisition and processing involved wars, slavery, and environmental destruction. Recommended. --R. S. Wexelbaum, Saint Cloud State University Choice

""Shen has the passion, turn of phrase, and international expertise to write a book about the history of humanity's use of silver and how it has impacted languages, cultures, science, economics, and politics. While most people are familiar with silver coins, jewelry, tableware, and bullets, Shen also uncovers the use of silver in medicines, electronics, medical devices, and modern clothing. Even though silver has always symbolized purity, Shen firmly elucidates that its acquisition and processing involved wars, slavery, and environmental destruction. Recommended.""--R. S. Wexelbaum, Saint Cloud State University ""Choice""

"""Shen has the passion, turn of phrase, and international expertise to write a book about the history of humanity's use of silver and how it has impacted languages, cultures, science, economics, and politics. While most people are familiar with silver coins, jewelry, tableware, and bullets, Shen also uncovers the use of silver in medicines, electronics, medical devices, and modern clothing. Even though silver has always symbolized purity, Shen firmly elucidates that its acquisition and processing involved wars, slavery, and environmental destruction. Recommended.""--R. S. Wexelbaum, Saint Cloud State University ""Choice"""

Author Information

Fiona Lindsay Shen is an art historian and Director of the Escalette Permanent Collection of Art at Chapman University in California. Her books include Silver: Nature and Culture (Reaktion, 2017).

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