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3 stars - enjoyed this book, you might too

So on the one hand I would actually recommend reading this book if you don't know much about making things by hand. I definitely enjoyed the book most when it talked about stuff I didn't know much about.

On the other hand, there was a lot that annoyed me about this book.

First of all, the central conceit that there is something called craeft that is different from craft annoyed me, and yes this is the whole premise of the book so maybe it's unfair to complain about, but it still annoyed me every time it came up. I generally agree that traditional crafts are worth preserving and have value in and of themselves, and that they are particularly worth keeping around since climate change might mean we have to move away from certain types of mass mechanization and waste. (It's also very Britain-centric.)

However, this book is prone to the kinds of romanticization of pre-industrial life which I usually expect from people who have not actually made anything from scratch. Except he has! He should know better! I think the argument that it is somehow more satisfying to be more in touch with nature is somewhat undercut by the fact that needing to spend all day, every day, doing hard physical labour as a matter of survival kind of sucks.

If you ignore this kind of running theme though, the descriptions of various traditional crafts - many of which most people don't have the opportunity to do any more - is quite interesting and worth knowing about. Bonus points for standing up for basket-weaving. My hope is that people reading this book are inspired to learn a craft of their own, rather than just developing some kind of cottagecore theory of how life was better back then.