About this item
From spoons to bullets to sterling coins, silver permeates our everyday culture and language. For millennia we've used it to buy what we need, adorn our bodies, or trumpet our social status, and likewise it's been useful to vanquish werewolves, vampires, and even our own smelly socks. This book captures all of these facets of silver and more, telling the fascinating story of one of our most hardworking precious metals. As Lindsay Shen shows, while always valued for its beauty and rarity - used to bolster dowries and pay armies alike - silver today is also exploited for its chemistry and can be found in everything from the clothes we wear to the electronics we use to the medical devices that save our lives. Born in the supernovae of stars and buried deep in the earth, it has been mined by many different societies, traded throughout the world, and been the source of wars and the downfall of empires.
About the Author
I am a writer and Director of Art Collections at Chapman University, Orange, CA. I earned my PhD in Art History from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and have worked for over 20 years in museums and cultural organizations in the US, Britain and China.
My work has appeared in international publications such as Architectural Review, Modernism Magazine, the Rijksmuseum Bulletin, China Today, and I have written for the National Trust for Scotland, the University of Minnesota, Hong Kong University Press, plus several literary journals and travel guides. My most recent book (2017) is a cultural history of silver for Reaktion Books. My poetry and creative writing have been published by Antiphon, the Eunoia Review and Eastlit (nominated for 2014 Pushcart Prize) .
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One of my favourite observations is by the musician John Cage: "Setting out one day for a birthday party, I noticed the streets were full of presents." For me, my work is a way to pay attention, and to respond with gratitude.
