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New York Times
4 days ago
- General
- New York Times
A Knotty Question: Does Rope Have Main Character Energy?
ROPE: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization, by Tim Queeney If Tim Queeney's 'Rope' were a movie, it would be a spinoff — an attempt to elevate a sidekick to a starring role. An author and self-described rope enthusiast, Queeney argues that modern society fails to appreciate how vital cordage was to the rise of civilization, and 'Rope' pleads with us to pay more attention to his favorite character. Humankind has fashioned rope from pretty much everything at some point in history: hemp, honeysuckle, coconut husks, milkweed, walrus hide, pig bristles. (Nowadays, there's also metal 'rope.') And while some uses are obvious, rope also acts as a multiplier that enhances the power of other tools. 'It was rope that made the spear a thing,' Queeney notes, by allowing us to bind stone points to wooden shafts. 'Without rope, humanity would be stuck with throwing rocks at its prey.' The oldest known scrap of rope, dating back 50,000 years, was braided by Neanderthals. Since then, rope has been a bit of a Zelig, popping up for dozens of important historical developments. Rope fishing nets have harvested the seas for millenniums. They powered the sails of ships during the Age of Exploration. No pyramids or cathedrals would reach toward the heavens without ropes to hoist blocks. The Incas used knotted ropes to record written language, as did other cultures. Even the Boston Massacre, a spark for the American Revolution, began as a skirmish in a rope-making shop near Boston Harbor. It's an impressive résumé, but Queeney gets a bit huffy that history books don't make rope the headliner: 'It was everywhere in every society, but taken as such a basic element that when pyramids are the topic, stones are the focus.' When the topic is 'the history of ships sailing the world, spices and empires capture the debate.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Wall Street Journal
08-08-2025
- Science
- Wall Street Journal
‘Rope' Review: A Knotty Subject
One-word book titles are a thing these days, each one signaling a deep dive into the essential everyday objects that separate us from absolute chaos. Among these are 'Salt,' 'Ice,' 'Cod,' 'Dirt' and, of course, 'Pockets.' Now, in 'Rope,' Tim Queeney makes the case for cordage, and as you read his book you may find yourself thinking that it's about damn time. We all know rope when we see it, but if you want to see someone squirm, ask for a definition of the word. One dictionary offers up 'a strong, thick line or cord, commonly one composed of twisted or braided strands of hemp, flax, or the like, or of wire or other material.' The ungainliness of this entry—the quintuple use of 'or' suggesting a boy stubbing his toe in the dirt—reflects this befuddlement. We love rope as a metaphor. We learn the ropes, get tied up in knots, demand some slack, cut the cord and find ourselves at the ends of our ropes. Mr. Queeney, a former editor of Ocean Navigator magazine, faces the same difficulty the culture does, namely that 'rope's very ubiquity made it disappear into the background.' While we go on at length about the building of pyramids, the speed of clipper ships and the rapacious commercial-fishing industry, we seldom consider how rope made it all possible. The oldest rope we have dates back 50,000 years to Neanderthals in a French cave. Anthropologists using a scanning electron microscope identified tiny bits of a three-strand rope, a sophisticated undertaking that some scientists believe demonstrates abstract mathematical thinking. Rope itself is undoubtedly much older, but organic materials decay pretty fast.
