David King Dunaway, "A Four-Eyed World: How Glasses Changed the Way We See" (Bloomsbury, 2026)

Feb 19, 2026

David King Dunaway, historian and cultural biographer, explores the history and social life of eyeglasses. He recounts a week without his own lenses. Topics include medieval church opposition, the spread of spectacles with print culture, stigma and gendered prejudices, the myopia rise and prevention, fashion and nonprescription frames, and the privacy risks of future smart glasses.

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ANECDOTE

A Week Without Glasses

David King Dunaway hid his glasses for a week to feel what life was like without them.
He describes accidents and newfound appreciation after the hazardous immersion experience.

INSIGHT

Glasses Began With Medieval Reading Stones

Glasses likely originated in 13th-century Italy from reading stones adapted for binocular use.
Early adoption began among church scribes who needed magnification to read and copy manuscripts.

INSIGHT

Church Resistance And Fragile Early Frames

The medieval Catholic Church resisted glasses as meddling with God's will and as a threat to its control of knowledge.
Handmade rivet glasses initially were handheld and fragile, limiting public use until frames evolved.

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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 (Bloomsbury, 2026) is the first book to investigate the experience of wearing glasses and contacts and their role in culture. Dr. 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 Dr. 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.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

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