This is a space to track ideas and understand what I’ve been reading. As I prepare for my qualifying exam, I am keeping a running commentary of sorts on the work that I read, hear, and see. My project is part archaeology, part folklore, part creative work, part labor history, part technology study, part agriculture, and part textile production. The linen industry on the island of Ireland is most familiar today to those in Ulster, but it once spread the island over. Prior to 1699, woolens were also a matter of Irish production. After an act of the English government, who settled on Irish soil to cultivate plantation and command land, woolen production was no longer permitted as the Irish industry was a threat, in terms of neoliberalism and early capitalism, to English herds and workers. At this time, my work prioritizes the linen industry from flax to finished fabric from the 17th to 20th centuries. This will shift and become more focused. For the moment, however, I exist in a land of many readings and reflective writing moments. You’re welcome to join me.

If you have suggestions in terms of resources pertaining to this work, please send them on through my contact page.

Below are the general themes under which these sources are organized.