An introduction to the domesticated silkworm moth, raised on farms in Japan and elsewhere for the sake of the silk thread out of which its cocoons are constructed.

The definitive biography of Tsien Hsue-Shen, the pioneer of the American space age who was mysteriously accused of being a communist, deported, and became -- to America's continuing chagrin -- the father of the Chinese missile program.

The Matter of History links the history of people with the history of things through a bold new materialist theory of the past.

Explores the laborious process of silk making in a small village in Thailand and the important contributions of silkworms.

The year is 1861. Hervé Joncour is a French merchant of silkworms, who combs the known world for their gemlike eggs. Then circumstances compel him to travel farther, beyond the edge of the known, to a country legendary for the quality of its silk and its hostility to foreigners: Japan.There Joncour meets a woman. They do not touch; they do not even speak. And he cannot read the note she sends him until he has returned to his own country. But in the moment he does, Joncour is possessed.