Bust-up: The uplifting tale of Otto Titzling and the development of the bra by Wallace Reyburn (1972-01-01)

Hardcover 1st American edition - very minor selfwear otherwise a fine clear sturdy copy. Wallace Reyburn was a Canadian born journalist and writer who built a career producing popular non fiction works that combined thorough research with an engaging and accessible narrative style aimed squarely at the general reading public rather than any specialist academic audience. He had a particular talent for identifying subjects that combined genuine historical interest with an element of the unexpected or quirky that would attract readers looking for something outside the mainstream of popular history writing, and he pursued these subjects with a journalist's instinct for the telling detail and the entertaining anecdote alongside whatever more substantial historical material the subject afforded. Bust Up is a popular history of the brassiere, tracing the development of this particular garment from its origins through its evolution into a major commercial product and cultural phenomenon of the twentieth century. The subject matter places the book within a small but interesting category of popular history writing that takes an apparently humble or overlooked object or invention as its central subject and uses it as a lens through which to examine broader social, cultural, and commercial history. This approach, which has antecedents in serious academic history but was particularly well suited to popular non fiction writing, allows a writer to combine genuine historical substance with the inherent appeal of an unexpected and somewhat unconventional subject. The history of the brassiere intersects with a range of significant historical themes including the evolution of attitudes toward the female body, the development of the modern fashion and garment industry, changing medical and social ideas about female health and physical freedom, and the broader story of how consumer products are invented, developed, patented, and brought to market. Reyburn navigates these themes with the light touch of a journalist rather than the methodical thoroughness of an academic historian, prioritizing readability and entertainment alongside historical substance. The book sits comfortably alongside Reyburn's other works in a similar vein, including his history of the flush toilet, reflecting his consistent interest in the social and commercial history of everyday objects and inventions that shaped modern life while rarely receiving the historical attention their influence might arguably warrant. His contribution to this genre of popular object history helped demonstrate the genuine appeal and commercial viability of writing that took seriously the history of things that polite convention might otherwise have regarded as too trivial or too intimate for sustained historical attention.…