Every Object Had a Maker: Life Before Standard Goods

A chair, a shoe, a pot, or a length of cloth once arrived through networks of makers whose work was personal, local, and often slow. This book explores the economies of everyday production before factories made uniformity widely available. It considers apprenticeships, household labor, trade guilds, repair, and the careful choices behind goods meant to last. The preindustrial world appears as a busy system of skills and relationships, not merely a waiting room for industry.