Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon

The story of America’s best-loved garment, from the humble pants Levi Strauss sold to California miners in the 1870s to big-city socialites spending big money—$300 and up—for premium jeans today Since their emergence over a century and a half ago, blue jeans have been worn by every segment of American society, and exported around the world as a symbol of our civilization. In Jeans, James Sullivan traces the evolution of jeans from a simple utilitarian garment into what fashion critics have called "the American uniform," the very embodiment of our society’s ethos. Beginning with the adoption of front-buckled trousers as a style of dress in nineteenth-century America (derided as "fornication pants" by Mormon leader Brigham Young), Sullivan tells the story of the riveted blue jeans’ humble origin as "waist overall" work pants.