Author Description

"In the pivotal decades just before and after the turn of the twentieth century, American domestic life underwent dramatic alteration. From backstairs to front stairs, spaces and the activities within them - whether inside or outside, secular or spiritual, routine events or special occasions - all were radically affected by shifts in the larger social and material environment. This stimulating volume, while taking careful account of architecture and decoration, moves us beyond the study of buildings to the study of behaviors, particularly the behaviors of those men, women, and children who peopled the middle-class, single-family, detached American home between 1880 and 1930." "The book's noted authors scrutinize transformations in services (such as home utilities of power, heat, light, water, and waste removal), in servicing (for example, the impact of home appliances such as gas and electric ranges, washing machines, and refrigerators), and in serving (changes in domestic servants' duties, hours of work, racial and ethnic backgrounds)." "Technological developments had a major impact on housekeeping practices, home amusements, gardening, and domestic comfort. The "consumer revolution" altered garden goods and interior furnishings while new concern for nature led to innovations in their arrangement. In blending intellectual and home history, these lucid essays both examine and exemplify the perennial American enthusiasm for, as well as anxiety about, the meaning of modernity."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved