Love Unsung History? Leave a Review!

Carolyn Purnell

Carolyn Purnell Profile Photo

I'm a historian, writer, and screenwriter, with a love of all things colorful and offbeat.

My first book The Sensational Past: How the Enlightenment Changed the Way We Use Our Senses (W. W. Norton, 2017) received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. My second book Blue Jeans was released by Bloomsbury in January 2023 as part of the Object Lessons series.

I’m also the writer and producer of “Pasture Prime,” a short film premiering at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The production was supported by a grant from the Austin Film Society, and I currently have several other projects in development.

My writing has appeared in Wall Street Journal, Citylab by The Atlantic, Atlas Obscura, Apartment Therapy, and Psychology Today, and I’ve won awards from the the National Endowment for the Humanities, European Commission, Huntington Library, Society for French Historical Studies, and University of Chicago, where I earned my M.A. and Ph.D.

As a ghostwriter and copywriter, I’ve also had the opportunity to work with some incredible clients, including a New York Times bestseller, a prime-time journalist, and award-winning CEOs.

141
Feb. 12, 2024

The History of Blue Jeans

If you’re like most Americans – or most people on earth – you have a pair of jeans, or maybe five, in your wardrobe. There’s a decent chance you’re wearing jeans right now. These humble pants were invented by a Reno tailor in the 1870s in response to a frustrated customer whose husband kept wearing through his pants too quickly. How, then, did they become a global phenomenon expected to exceed $100 billion in sales by 2025? Joining me to help answer that question is historian, writer, and screen...