An advanced reader's edition copy from Goodreads.com's First Reads giveaway program, to read and review. It appears that this book covers similar subject matter to Bill Bryson's "At Home", and I'm curious to see how they compare.

Having previously read Bill Bryson’s “At Home”, I was already somewhat aware of how much the space and furnishings in our homes have changed through the centuries. However, where Bryson focused on the physical changes in our homes, this book broadens that view and looks at the social and economic forces that helped shape those changes, and how those very changes impacted the economy and social structures in turn. In many ways, the very ideas of home and family have been fundamentally altered over time by these interactions, and our modern understandings, which appear to us to be long held, are actually very recent developments, in some cases just a couple of generations old.

This book touches on so many aspects of our lives that it would be difficult to mention all of them in a meaningful summary. But among those that stand out are the roles of women, both in families and society, and how the understanding of those roles has changed over time. The book also explores the evolution of our home furnishings and shows how they reflect both the changing economic realities of families and their evolving roles in the home. And there is an excellent discussion about our myths about homes and how they have evolved.

For those who want a look at the history of family and home life that pulls back the curtains of nostalgia and provides a glimpse of the historical reality of what life used to be like, this book will certainly satisfy that need. It appears to be well-researched, and suggests that much of what we think we know about homes and families in the past is just wrong.

I've wrapped this book up for the "First line" book exchange at this year's BC-in-DC holiday gathering.

Received at a BC in DC Christmas party.