An engaging and informative cultural history of glasses that explores their origins, stigmas, future in technology, and more.

An engaging and informative cultural history of glasses that explores their origins, stigmas, future in technology, and more.

Eyeglasses have become so commonplace we hardly think about them—unless we can’t find them. Yet glasses have been controversial throughout history. Roger Bacon pioneered using lenses to see and then spent a decade in a medieval prison for advocating that he could “fix” God’s creations by improving our eyesight. Even today, people take off their glasses before having their picture taken, despite how necessary they are.

A Four-Eyed World: How Glasses Changed the Way We See is the first book to investigate the experience of wearing glasses and contacts and their role in culture. David King Dunaway encourages readers to take a look at how they literally see the world through what they wear. He explores everything from the history of deficient eyesight and how glasses are made to portrayals of those who wear glasses in media, the stigma surrounding them, and the future of augmented and virtual reality glasses, highlighting how glasses have shaped, and continue to shape, who we are. Interwoven is Dunaway’s own experience of spending a week without his glasses, which he has used since childhood, to see the world around him and his newfound appreciation for his visual aids.

This is the story of how we see the world and how our ability to see things has evolved, ultimately asking: How have two cloudy, quarter-sized discs of crystal or glass originally riveted together become so essential to human existence? Shakespeare famously said eyes are windows to the soul, but what about people who see only by covering theirs with glasses? Readers will find out together through this fascinating and insightful cultural history of one of humanity’s greatest inventions.

"A fun, quick read on vision and fashion." - Shepherd Express

"A Four-Eyed World takes readers on a witty, eye-opening journey through the history of eyewear." - Optical Prism

"A thoroughly delightful, information-packed look into living with lenses." - Kirkus Reviews

"An entertaining account of how glasses change the way we see.... [Dunaway] is a gifted writer. His book is an enthralling exploration of what it means to wear glasses, and "their place in popular culture." - Wall Street Journal

"Dunaway scribes a wide-ranging investigation of how spectacles and other vision aids have shaped individual identity, social norms, art, science and industry, and examines how the next generation of smart eyewear may once again transform what it means to see ... A Four-Eyed World can serve as both mirror and a roadmap. It walks us through the history of an item many of us use every single day without thinking." - Vision Monday

"A central element of Dunaway's book is the eye-opening cultural history of eyeglasses ... Dunaway delightfully rolls in storytelling and personal ocular history ... [An] important, comprehensive work." - Albuquerque Journal