Books - Barbed Wire

Product Description:

While barbed wire has always cut across property, war and politics as a tool of control, it has other histories, constructed through image and text in the arts, media and popular culture, which have never before been examined. Invented in France in 1860 and welcomed by the frontier farmers of America, the menacing qualities of barbed wire became evident in the Boer War, the barbed wire no-man's-land of World War I, and the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. Barbed wire became synonymous with repression. In the art of the late-twentieth century, its ambivalent character has made barbed wire the perfect symbol of post-modernity. Alan Krell's amazing story investigates the place barbed wire holds in the social imagination.

Customer Review: This is the best book on barbed wire identification.:
This is the best book on barbed wire identification that I have found. It is actually a catalog of line drawings of barbed wire patents. Because of this, there may be drawings of wire that may have never actually been produced. The drawings are very clear and are identified by name, patent number and patent date. There are no references to "Barbed Wire Bible" numbers that are commonly used to identify wire samples in collections. This is not a criticism, only an observation.

The best feature of this catalog is that it is arranged by classifying barbed wire by its attributes (e.g. 2 points, 4 points, metalic strip, etc.). This makes locating a wire sample very convenient.

Product Description:
A political history of the everyday invention that changed the world. No less than the internal combustion engine, the transistor, or the silicon chip, barbed wire is the quintessentially modern creation, a product that has influenced the lives of millions of people across the globe since its invention in the late nineteenth century. In this far-ranging work of historical analysis, French historian Olivier Razac makes a major—and unexpected—addition to the list of technologies that have come to define the modern world, uncovering the hidden political history of barbed wire for the first time. Cheap and mass-produced, barbed wire accomplished what no other product did before it, or has since done more effectively: the control of vast amounts of open space. As Razac shows, few other technologies did more to usher in the hallmarks of the modern era: the harnessing of nature, brutal mass warfare, political conquest and repression, and genocide. In a narrative that spans the history of the American Frontier, the trenches of World War I, the Holocaust, and beyond, Barbed Wire looks unflinchingly at a central and fascinating thread of modern life. Barbed Wire is illustrated with rare photographs from European and American archives. 40 b/w photographs.



Customer Review: More Than A Fence:
Amnesty International is an organization which concerns itself with those imprisoned not because of crimes, but because of politics. For a symbol, Amnesty has a burning candle, a token of hope, enclosed by loops of barbed wire. The meaning is conveyed instantaneously. Barbed wire is easy to draw; since it is such a simple device with a simple design, only a few lines suffice to make a convincing picture. Readily identifiable, barbed wire means to us prison and enclosure. To Olivier Razac, author of _Barbed Wire: A Political History_ (New Press; translated from the French by Jonathan Kneight), it means a great deal more. His revelatory little book is actually a long, illustrated essay to show how from a ranching tool, barbed wire has come a long way as a tool for brutality and repression.

_Barbed Wire_ is not a history of the subject, but of course it is necessary to mention its origin. It is perhaps ironic that barbed wire had its beginning in the open prairie of the land of the free. J. F. Glidden was a farmer who invented barb wire for plains farmers who needed a cheap means of fencing in their land. Even as an invention for cattle control, barbed wire could not help but affect humans, and in unexpected ways. It ended the classic cattle drive, putting out of work most of the cowboys who have loomed large in American mythology. They may have lost their jobs, but the American Indians lost their culture, and it can be seen as a weapon against the indigenous peoples. Barbed wire proved a useful weapon in subsequent battles. Landscapes of World War One featured trenches supplemented with rows of the stuff. It was easy enough to cut with simple shears, but of course you had to get close enough to do so. Land torpedoes, nicknamed "wood lice" or "Schneider crocodiles" were invented to tunnel in and blow the wires up. The best way to neutralize barbed wire was to blow it up with cannon fire, but when tanks arrived, ramparts and bunkers became important again. It was the Nazis who made barbed wire a staple to represent their cold and brutal regime. Its eternal advantages, cheapness, simplicity, and easy installation, made it indispensable. When they built a concentration camp, it was the fence that went up first. In the camps, barbed wire achieved the severest example of what Razac convinces us is its use in "the political management of space." It became "the symbol of the worst catastrophe of the century." It is still used in Palestinian refugee camps, of course, and our government would rather not show the wire all over Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Of course, barbed wire can be found atop fences surrounding factories or prisons, and we do not find this use politically oppressive. Other uses of the wire within open democracies, Razac argues, have disappeared, because spaces needing control are now being watched by guards, video monitors, and electronic gates, some of which carry an Orwellian aura, but none of which have the immediate fearsome aspect of simple twisted and sharpened wire. Razac's slim book exposes plenty of history within a commonplace object, one that those who complete the book will not see in the same way again.

Customer Review: An eye-opening critique of a simple invention!:
The book is rather short. Therefore, it focuses on only three aspects of barbed wire - The trenches of WWI, The concentration camps of the Nazis during WWII, and the use of barbed wire by American ranchers during the mid/late 1800's, ending the roaming ways of the Native Americans.

There is alot to say about the book, but the book says it best. So I'll sum it up - barbed wire is one of the most overlooked inventions of death during the last 200 years.

Highly Recommended!

Product Description:
Before the mid-1800s, much of the American West was a vast
expanse of open plains. Native tribes followed buffalo herds
unimpeded for hundreds of miles, cowboys ran cattle wherever
water and grass led them, and the cattleman s Law of the Open
Range ruled. All this changed when settlers pouring into the West
under the Homestead Act of 1862 brought with them the Eastern
farmer s concept of fencing in farms. With the invention and mass
production of barbed wire in the 1870s, it soon became possible
for homesteaders to fence off millions of acres of what was once
open range. But barbed wire threatened the livelihood of the
cattlemen who depended on unfenced grasslands, and a clash of
cultures was inevitable.

In a style that will capture the interest of adult and teen readers,
Barbed Wire: The Fence That Changed the West reveals the surprisingly
critical role the invention of barbed wire played in the settling of
America. From the legal battles over barbed wire patents to the
brutal fencing wars that erupted on the frontier and the ultimate
end of the open range, author Joanne Liu tells the fascinating story
of how a simple twist of wire transformed a country s landscape
and ushered in a new way of life.

Product Description:
The history of animals and humans as seen through barbed wire.



Customer Review: Big ideas and a gripping read:
This is a tour-de-force piece of scholarship from an author who normally writes fascinating, but quite difficult, texts about ancient mathematics. Barbed Wire takes the invention, development, and use of barbed wire in agriculture, on the battlefield, and in prison camps as a case study to talk about the ways in which modernity can, in a sense, be defined through the ways in which it changed how movement is allowed and prevented, and how the economic/ecological processes of everyday life are organized. This book presents big, often terrifying, ideas in a way which is accessible and pleasurable to read. It poses serious questions which we cannot ignore about modern politics and the ways in which we live in relation to each other as humans and as animals on the planet.

Product Description:
On the demand side, exporters and strategic planners focusing on iron or steel barbed wire and twisted hoop or single flat wire loosely twisted double wire used for fencing in China face a number of questions. Which countries are supplying iron or steel barbed wire and twisted hoop or single flat wire loosely twisted double wire used for fencing to China? How important is China compared to others in terms of the entire global and regional market? How much do the imports of iron or steel barbed wire and twisted hoop or single flat wire loosely twisted double wire used for fencing vary from one country of origin to another in China? On the supply side, China also exports iron or steel barbed wire and twisted hoop or single flat wire loosely twisted double wire used for fencing. Which countries receive the most exports from China? How are these exports concentrated across buyers? What is the value of these exports and which countries are the largest buyers? This report was created for strategic planners, international marketing executives and import/export managers who are concerned with the market for iron or steel barbed wire and twisted hoop or single flat wire loosely twisted double wire used for fencing in China. With the globalization of this market, managers can no longer be contented with a local view. Nor can managers be contented with out-of-date statistics which appear several years after the fact. I have developed a methodology, based on macroeconomic and trade models, to estimate the market for iron or steel barbed wire and twisted hoop or single flat wire loosely twisted double wire used for fencing for those countries serving China via exports, or supplying from China via imports. It does so for the current year based on a variety of key historical indicators and econometric models. In what follows, Chapter 2 begins by summarizing where China fits into the world market for imported and exported iron or steel barbed wire and twisted hoop or single flat wire loosely twisted double wire used for fencing. The total level of imports and exports on a worldwide basis, and those for China in particular, is estimated using a model which aggregates across over 150 key country markets and projects these to the current year. From there, each country represents a percent of the world market. This market is served from a number of competitive countries of origin. Based on both demand- and supply-side dynamics, market shares by country of origin are then calculated across each country market destination. These shares lead to a volume of import and export values for each country and are aggregated to regional and world totals. In doing so, we are able to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of both the value of each market and the share that China is likely to receive this year. From these figures, rankings are calculated to allow managers to prioritize China compared to other major country markets. In this way, all the figures provided in this report are forecasts that can be combined with internal information sources for strategic planning purposes.

Product Description:
On the demand side, exporters and strategic planners focusing on iron or steel barbed wire and twisted hoop or single flat wire loosely twisted double wire used for fencing in United States face a number of questions. Which countries are supplying iron or steel barbed wire and twisted hoop or single flat wire loosely twisted double wire used for fencing to United States? How important is United States compared to others in terms of the entire global and regional market? How much do the imports of iron or steel barbed wire and twisted hoop or single flat wire loosely twisted double wire used for fencing vary from one country of origin to another in United States? On the supply side, United States also exports iron or steel barbed wire and twisted hoop or single flat wire loosely twisted double wire used for fencing. Which countries receive the most exports from United States? How are these exports concentrated across buyers? What is the value of these exports and which countries are the largest buyers? This report was created for strategic planners, international marketing executives and import/export managers who are concerned with the market for iron or steel barbed wire and twisted hoop or single flat wire loosely twisted double wire used for fencing in United States. With the globalization of this market, managers can no longer be contented with a local view. Nor can managers be contented with out-of-date statistics which appear several years after the fact. I have developed a methodology, based on macroeconomic and trade models, to estimate the market for iron or steel barbed wire and twisted hoop or single flat wire loosely twisted double wire used for fencing for those countries serving United States via exports, or supplying from United States via imports. It does so for the current year based on a variety of key historical indicators and econometric models. In what follows, Chapter 2 begins by summarizing where United States fits into the world market for imported and exported iron or steel barbed wire and twisted hoop or single flat wire loosely twisted double wire used for fencing. The total level of imports and exports on a worldwide basis, and those for United States in particular, is estimated using a model which aggregates across over 150 key country markets and projects these to the current year. From there, each country represents a percent of the world market. This market is served from a number of competitive countries of origin. Based on both demand- and supply-side dynamics, market shares by country of origin are then calculated across each country market destination. These shares lead to a volume of import and export values for each country and are aggregated to regional and world totals. In doing so, we are able to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of both the value of each market and the share that United States is likely to receive this year. From these figures, rankings are calculated to allow managers to prioritize United States compared to other major country markets. In this way, all the figures provided in this report are forecasts that can be combined with internal information sources for strategic planning purposes.