{"product_id":"zipper-2","title":"Zipper","description":"It is almost impossible to imagine modern life without this device; yet for the first thirty years or so, from its patent in the late nineteenth century, it represented no real advantage over traditional fasteners like the hook-and-eye or the old-fashioned button. The zipper was mechanically awkward, liable to rust, liable to fail (i.e., snag or burst open), and so expensive that it doubled the retail price of a skirt or a pair of pants. But from the beginning the zipper had an allure, a mystery, a kind of sex appeal that would be echoed in songs, poems, and popular novels.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Robert Friedel has written a fascinating history—full of strange twists, paradoxes, and interesting characters—of this signature gadget of the twentieth century. Inventor Whitcomb Judson (whose efforts lay mostly in patenting a doomed undertaking known as the Pneumatic Streetcar) gave the zipper life; businessman Colonel Lewis Walker had the capital and the faith to back it for forty years; and cultural icons such as Marlon Brando, Erica Jong, and the Rolling Stones helped to turn it into a symbol for sexuality and style.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Not just the story of a distinctive technology, \u003cem\u003eZipper\u003c\/em\u003e is an entertaining, informative examination of how new things become part of our daily lives, shaping how we think and act.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"WW Norton \u0026 Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Product","offer_id":54221896417624,"sku":"9780393313659","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/zipper-2","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}