Richard Thompson Ford
Author of Dress Codes: How the laws of fashion made history
About the Author
Richard Thompson Ford is a Professor at Stanford Law School. He has written about law, social and cultural issues, and race relations for the New York Times, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Slate, and has appeared on The Colbert Report and The Rachel Maddow Show. He is the author show more of the New York Times notable books The Race Card and Rights Gone Wrong: How Law Corrupts the Struggle for Equality. He lives in San Francisco. show less
Image credit: Stanford University (faculty page)
Works by Richard Thompson Ford
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1966-06
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Education
- Stanford University (BA | 1988)
Harvard Law School (JD | 1991) - Occupations
- lawyer
law school professor - Organizations
- Stanford University
- Short biography
- Richard Thompson Ford is the George E. Osborne Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. An expert on civil rights and antidiscrimination law, he has distinguished himself as an insightful voice and compelling writer on questions of race and multiculturalism. His scholarship combines social criticism and legal analysis and he writes for both popular readers and for academic and legal specialists. He has written for the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor and for Slate, where he is a regular contributor, and has appeared on The Colbert Report and The Rachel Maddow Show. In 2012 ON BEING A BLACK LAWYER selected him as one of the 100 Most Influential Black Lawyers in the Nation. [from Amazon author page, retrieved 03/15/2021]
Members
Reviews
Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History by Richard Thompson Ford
"Pull out a five-dollar bill and you will see Thomas Jefferson wearing a fashionable wig of his day". Okay, I did and found Abraham Lincoln there. Old Tom is on two and isn't bewiged. That portait's there since 1869. I wonder where did that double whammy come from, Sir?
This book was an engrossing read and has sparked a number of interesting debates in my immediate circle. This book is about society rather style. This is one of the few places that discusses the intersection of race and gender relations with clothing.
It discusses the causes behind phenomena that have long seemed mysterious to me - like, for instance, why is women's fashion so different in variety, conspicuousness and cost than men's fashion? Did you know that dressmaking and fashion was exclusively a male profession in the past? So, how did it become associated with women - and vacuity? This book tells the historic context for those transitions.
There is a thought-provoking section about the fashion context of the civil rights movement. The author offers his opinion in an even-keeled manner. As a woman in a male-dominated academic discipline, I was grateful for this book's perspective on women's fashion and its clash with the culture of dressing-down in academia and tech. It's been a couple of weeks since I finished this book, and it still feels like I'm reading it because it's on my mind.… (more)
It discusses the causes behind phenomena that have long seemed mysterious to me - like, for instance, why is women's fashion so different in variety, conspicuousness and cost than men's fashion? Did you know that dressmaking and fashion was exclusively a male profession in the past? So, how did it become associated with women - and vacuity? This book tells the historic context for those transitions.
There is a thought-provoking section about the fashion context of the civil rights movement. The author offers his opinion in an even-keeled manner. As a woman in a male-dominated academic discipline, I was grateful for this book's perspective on women's fashion and its clash with the culture of dressing-down in academia and tech. It's been a couple of weeks since I finished this book, and it still feels like I'm reading it because it's on my mind.… (more)
Fairly dense text, highly informative with many historical tidbits, good insight into the intersection of history and fashion
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Statistics
- Works
- 8
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 376
- Popularity
- #64,175
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 7
- ISBNs
- 18
- Languages
- 1