Faux Real–Now in Paperback

Faux Real: Genuine Leather and 200 Years of Inspired Fakes

Robert Kanigel

296 pages | 6 x 9

Paper 2010 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2132-9 | $19.95 | £13.00

Faux Real"Fantastic cultural history. Smart and sensual prose. You'll never look at your Manolos the same way again."–Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash

"Kanigel's book is an easy and pleasurable read. . . . A tribute to leather's physical and tactile properties and to humankind's ingenuity and persistence in attempting to imitate them."–Design and Culture

From Leatherette to Naugahyde, men and women have devoted enormous energy to making fake leather seem real. Faux Real explores this borderland of the almost-real, the ersatz, and the fake, illuminating a centuries-old culture war between the authentic and the imitative.

Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Ellen Trachtenberg.
Educators: to request an exam copy for course use consideration, click here.