According to the renowned social critic and historian Paul Fussell, we are what we wear, and it doesn't look good. Uniforms parses the hidden meani...
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Jun 05, 2008
Guy
rated it: 
Perhaps I should have read his "The Great War and Modern Memory" (for which he won various major awards) instead. This is not a book of scholarship... it is a book for fetishists. Amusing anecdotes at times, yes, and he can write well, but overall the book is principally a list of different uniforms described in dull (at least to this non-fetishist) detail.
Don't bother.
Don't bother.
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Feb 18, 2010
Joy
rated it: 
I listened to this book on tape. Some of these recordings are not what
I would normally chose for reading, but they do prove to introduce new
topics and ideas. This was a "lighthearted look at the personal, cultural, and historical meaning of uniforms and what they reveal about class, gender, and the need to belong." It was written by a literature professor. I was particularly interested in the section on military uniforms, which included generals Patton and Eisenhower. More...
I would normally chose for reading, but they do prove to introduce new
topics and ideas. This was a "lighthearted look at the personal, cultural, and historical meaning of uniforms and what they reveal about class, gender, and the need to belong." It was written by a literature professor. I was particularly interested in the section on military uniforms, which included generals Patton and Eisenhower. More...
Dec 09, 2008
Karen
rated it:
If ever a book needed pictures, it’s this one. I had too Google “Army pink trousers” to see that they weren’t really even remotely what I think of as pink, and maybe it’s my fault my education didn’t cover what a “Sam Browne belt” is, but I was frequently distracted while reading this wishing I could see what the heck he was writing about. I finished it not feeling any more enlightened about “why we are what we wear” than I had been when I started, as the text was more a collection of observatio
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May 12, 2008
Nikki
rated it:
This is a collection of very short meanderings on the subject of uniforms by someone who used to know what he was talking about. Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory was a really good book. book:Class] was a pretty good book. The only reason I gave this book two stars was that I did finish it, and it gave me a chuckle or two. Had it not been a library book, I might have thrown it across the room a time or two or three, because of simple errors of fact. For example, the Army has not tuc
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Feb 22, 2009
Amberjean
rated it:
Entertaining, but disorganized. Reads a little more like discussions with a charming old fellow who likes to talk; entertaining in vignettes, but tiresome as a steady diet. The book doesn't seem to explore any one thing very deeply, but rather skips from point to point, always returning to discuss the Nazis and the US armed forces.
Jun 28, 2011
John
rated it:
A disappointment; pick one of Fussell's many other wonderful books, like "Class", before reading this collection of vague, fairly-charming rambles.
Sep 02, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
I wasn't expecting this book to be rivetting but I was at least expecting it to be interesting and informative. The problem is that it's mostly "What We Wear" and very little of the Why.
Dec 17, 2009
Tracey
rated it:
Not quite as compelling as some other object-history nonfiction I've read; in fact, I don't remember a whole lot about the book at all.
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