The Boot

I have never given a book as a gift before. However my boyfriend is both a book and BOOT lover, so this book seemed to be a good 8th anniversary gift. Well as it happens, this book was "THE PERFECT GIFT". My boyfriend and I could not have been happier with both Amazon, and the book. The quality of the book was excellent. The shipping was LIGHTENING FAST, and the transaction was fast and without incident. I will be using Amazon.com more often for all of our book loving friends. "Thank You", Amazon.com.Regards, HeatherPlayz70

Despite their being a staple item of women's fashion for more than 50 years, most books on shoes have treated boots only in passing - a footnote, if you like, to the history of footwear. So this book by Bradley Quinn, the first publication entirely devoted to boots as a fashion item, is long overdue. Boots are amongst the most visually striking forms of fashion footwear, and have a host of historical and cultural associations that make them a prime subject for an overview of this sort. Was it worth the wait? The answer is "mostly." The book is lavishly illustrated and features detailed profiles of 14 modern designers with examples of their work, but the accompanying text could best be described as idiosyncratic. Describing women's boots from the 1960s as "essentially masculine" and "an antidote to the frou frou femininity" of the New Look" may puzzle anyone who thought that they were primarily a response to rising hem-lines. There are also some curious omissions; it's hard to see how any definitive overview of boots could neglect Beth Levine, widely acknowledged as the woman who transformed them from wet weather gear to a fashion item in the fifties and sixties, or discuss the shift from boots to shoes in the early 20th Century without making any mention of the 1920s vogue for "Russian" boots (the precursor of the modern fashion boot). A lengthy essay on Native American footwear sits more-or-less in isolation in the history section, while chapters on fetishism and "warrior women" cover ground that will be familiar to anyone who has read Valerie Steele's work. But these are relatively minor issues when compared with the achievement of getting this work published. If you're interested in fashion and the history of clothing, particularly as it relates to shoes, then you should certainly own a copy of this book.