# The Fabric of Civilization by Virginia Postrel

3 Hacker News commenters recommended The Fabric of Civilization by Virginia Postrel and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a fascinating, content-rich argument that cloth and textile production was among civilization's core developments.

## Why people recommend it

- Makes a fascinating argument about textiles (1 comments): "It was completely fascinating, and made a good argument that the production of cloth/textiles might by one on the most import core developments" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46397225))
- Full of interesting material (1 comments): "It's chok full of interesting stuff." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47031526))
- Recommended to readers as worth reading (1 comments): "Y’all might enjoy Virginia Postrel’s _The Fabric of Civilization_" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50011404))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dawn-of-everything.md): 23 recommend
- [Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cadillac-desert.md): 18 recommend
- [The Box by Marc Levinson](https://hackerapproved.com/p/box.md): 16 recommend
- [Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sapiens.md): 13 recommend
- [Chip War by Chris Miller](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chip-war.md): 13 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1541617622?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9781541617629) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Fabric of Civilization by Virginia Postrel", https://hackerapproved.com/p/fabric-of-civilization/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).