Podcast Summary:

Trish FitzSimons and Madelyn Shaw, "Fleeced: Unraveling the History of Wool and War" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher
Air Date: March 1, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Dr. Miranda Melcher interviews Trish FitzSimons and Madelyn Shaw, co-authors of Fleeced: Unraveling the History of Wool and War, a sweeping history connecting the seemingly disparate subjects of wool and warfare. The authors discuss how wool has played an instrumental—yet often overlooked—role as a strategic and economic commodity in global conflict, imperial expansion, and industrial innovation from the Napoleonic era to the present day. The conversation explores trade, technology, geopolitics, environmental impact, and personal stories woven into the history of wool.

Author Introductions & Genesis of the Book

[02:30-06:50]

• Madelyn Shaw: Longtime museum curator in costume and textiles, formerly at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, with decades of experience on the U.S. East Coast.
• Trish FitzSimons: Documentary filmmaker, social historian, and academic at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia; personal connection via her grandfather, a wool buyer whose letters sparked her interest in wool's historical relevance to war.
• Their collaboration began after FitzSimons visited an exhibition curated by Shaw in NYC, and a serendipitous kitchen meeting in Massachusetts blossomed into an enduring research partnership.
• Both have received prestigious fellowships (Fulbright, National Library of Australia, Smithsonian, etc.) that enabled research in both hemispheres.
  • “Neither of us could have written this book alone. I think that’s what's fabulous.” – Trish FitzSimons [06:30]

Wool 101: Types and Properties

[07:30-11:38]

• Wool’s complexity: It is the most complex natural fiber, coming from various sheep breeds across many climates, each producing different textures and qualities.
• Key distinctions:
  • Carpet wool: Hairier, coarse fibers for rugs and durable goods.
  • Clothing wool: Softer, finer fibers, improved through breeding (e.g., merino sheep in Australia and New Zealand).
• Environmental influence: Factors like climate, nutrition, and shearing/processing methods affect the final product.
  • Notable insight: “The hairier animals produce what’s called carpet wools and the woolier animals produce clothing wools.” – Madelyn Shaw [09:09]
• End uses: Fine wools excel at felting, uniform fabrics; crossbred wools suit hard-wearing garments; carpets wools fill in as needed, especially during wartime shortages.

Global Wool Trade & War: Strategic Commodity

[12:15-16:29]

• Wool as ancient trade: Central to European and UK economies for centuries, with the 19th century marking explosive growth due to the Industrial Revolution and ongoing warfare (e.g., Napoleonic Wars).
• Military necessity: War and rising army sizes escalated demand; disruptions like the British naval blockade forced the empire to source wool from colonies.
• Spanish Merino: The world’s best wool pre-19th century, tightly controlled by Spain, but the Napoleonic upheaval allowed its spread (sometimes through piracy) and crossbreeding elsewhere.
  • “Pirates will pirate merinos off ships in order to get that fine fleece.” – Trish FitzSimons [14:09]
• Mechanization and fiber innovation: Textile industry’s shift to machines demanded longer, stronger fibers, driving selective breeding and new trade patterns.

Imperial Expansion, Colonization, and Wool

[17:02-21:28]

• Australia and New Zealand: Colonization driven in part by British demand for raw wool, transforming landscapes and economies. Sheep replace former land uses, often at the expense of Indigenous populations.
  • “The whole of the Australian continent ... becomes like the sheepwalk for British manufacturing.” – Trish FitzSimons [18:10]
• Frontier conflicts: Settlement led to warfare in Australia (due to land dispossession), and to a lesser but still significant extent in New Zealand.
• Export logistics: Wool’s durability made it ideal for long-distance shipment, fueling imperial economies.

The World Wars: Wool as a Weapon

World War I:

[22:32-29:30]

• Strategic blockades & controls: Wool is recognized as an essential war commodity; Britain and Germany try to outstockpile each other; wool is blockaded, purchased at fixed prices, and compulsorily acquired from colonies.
  • “Wool is a great strategic commodity.” – Trish FitzSimons [24:02]
• Neutral U.S. perspective: U.S. suppliers struggled to access South American and South African wool due to shipping and insurance constraints; Britain’s control over shipping shaped access and trade.
• American industry: U.S. becomes a key supplier for warring nations but is limited by dependence on British-controlled wool.

How Did Wool Traders Communicate?

[29:56-33:44]

• Telegraph and codes: International trade was facilitated by intricate telegraph codes, allowing buyers and sellers (and governments) to negotiate quantity and supply under increasing secrecy and control.
  • “It’s code and there are really intricate codes. The wool buyers, confidential ones, of course.” – Trish FitzSimons [29:56]

Wartime Substitutes

[33:52-39:14]

• Shoddy: Recycled wool, ubiquitous but often unpopular due to concerns about quality and hygiene; essential for wartime production but mostly relegated to items like blankets/off-body garments.
• Cotton blends (Aspero), plant fibers, jute, ramie, even paper and seagrass: Nations experimented desperately to supplement or replace scarce wool with all manner of materials.
  • “The most important substitute in World War I for the Germans and the Austrians was paper.” – Madelyn Shaw [38:25]

Interwar Period: Rise of Rayon & Geopolitical Complications

[39:46-46:44]

• Rayon ("artificial silk"): The first semi-synthetic fiber, grew in significance postwar, gradually blending with wool and cotton in textiles as nations sought self-sufficiency in materials.
  • “We need more innovation in fibers now. The only man-made fiber that existed before World War I was called artificial silk...by 1924 in America they call it rayon…” – Madelyn Shaw [41:06]
• Wool “loses the peace”: Even as the wool market recovered in the 1920s, international politics (trade embargoes, tariffs, imperial preference) and the ascendance of rayon challenged the industry.
  • “Wool wins the war but loses the peace because global power politics complicate the wool trade.” – Trish FitzSimons [45:44]

World War II and the Synthetic Revolution

[47:04-54:33]

• Repeat dynamics: With compulsory wool purchase, fixed prices, and shipping blockades; the Allies (especially the U.S. and Britain) coordinated more than in WWI, but faced similar shortages.
  • “They purchase [wool], like the day they declare war, that’s it, we get your wool again, a fixed price.” – Madelyn Shaw [47:54]
• Blending and substitution: Rayon content in military uniforms increased dramatically (notably in Germany, leading to inferior winter gear).
  • By 1945, German uniforms could be “about 85% rayon and 15% wool.” – Madelyn Shaw [48:53]
• New synthetics: The era of full synthetics (nylon, acrylic, polyester) dawned—cheaper and less dependent on global trade, accelerating wool’s decline.
  • “Once you've got synthetic fibers, they're much cheaper to produce because there's not the same complexity over where the raw materials come from.” – Trish FitzSimons [52:13]
• The Korean War “boom and bust”: U.S. stockpiling led to a temporary boom but Hastened wool’s marginalization, especially with fast-growing synthetic alternatives dominating.

Wool Today & Final Reflections

[54:50-59:07]

• Global position: Once around 20% of textiles (1900), wool is now less than 1%; most textiles today are synthetic (especially polyester—approx. 60%).
  • “Now the real relationship of wool war and textiles is a different kind of war—the war on waste, because we now live in a fast fashion universe.” – Trish FitzSimons [55:30]
• Wool’s modern uses: Still valued in specific contexts—fire resistance, extreme sports, insulation, sustainable uses such as garden mulch due to biodegradability.
• Takeaway messages:
  • The long, complex story of wool is entwined with empire, colonization, trade, environmental change, and social transformation.
  • Both natural and synthetic fibers have ecological impacts; the major solution is to consume fewer, higher-quality textiles and extend their lifecycle.
    • “We want people to just rework their entire relationship to textiles...it is unsustainable for the future of the planet to keep consuming the way that we consume.” – Madelyn Shaw [57:11]

Surprising Discoveries & Future Research

[59:24-63:26]

• Governments’ active promotion of rayon post-WWI was unexpected.
• The lack of secondary literature on the U.S. wool industry and its impact on Indigenous peoples is notable, especially compared with cotton.
  • “I would love for other historians to just pick up where we couldn’t go ... there are a lot of loose ends I think that other people could pick up and run with.” – Madelyn Shaw [60:19]
• Wartime wool shortages drove innovation in synthetics more than previously appreciated.
  • “We were some years into this project before we really realized that these contrived shortages of wool during wartime were so central to what drove the refinement of rayon and the creation of the various fully synthetic fibers.” – Trish FitzSimons [61:13]
• Postwar, Cold War and Iron Curtain nations remained key wool customers for decades.

Notable Quotes

• “Wool is not all warm and fuzzy. Wool very much has a history as a strategic commodity ... I love wool. I think it is a most wonderful fiber, even though it is now much more expensive than synthetic fibers.” – Trish FitzSimons [55:30]
• “The thing about wool, I mean, natural fibers have their own issues. Sheep produce methane … but the solution has got to be consume less and it’s consume things that can be reused.” – Madelyn Shaw [57:42]
• “Nobody’s done a really full history of where synthetics have come from before. So that was extraordinary.” – Trish FitzSimons [61:40]

Closing & Authors’ Next Projects

[63:26–66:52]

• Trish FitzSimons: Researching sculptural drinking fountains and their social implications (“Quenched” project).
• Madelyn Shaw: Considering a fresh look at American silk and lace manufacturing history.
• Both invite listeners and scholars to build on their work.

Key Timestamps

• 02:30 – Author introductions & story of collaboration
• 07:30 – Wool varieties and fiber fundamentals
• 12:15 – Wool trade’s global scope and history
• 17:02 – Imperial expansion and impact in Australia/New Zealand
• 22:32 – World War I: Wool as strategic commodity
• 29:56 – Telegraph codes and global wool markets
• 33:52 – Wartime substitutes: shoddy, paper, and plant fibers
• 39:46 – Rayon rises & wool’s postwar decline
• 47:04 – WWII, synthetics, and lasting changes
• 54:50 – Modern wool use, sustainability, and takeaways
• 59:24 – Research surprises & calls for further scholarship
• 63:26 – Authors’ upcoming projects & final thanks

For an engaging, deeply researched tapestry of wool’s impact on war, empire, and society—and reflections on our future with textiles—Fleeced: Unraveling the History of Wool and War offers an illuminating, wide-ranging read.