Book Descriptions:

Throughout history, effort, enterprise and energy have been expended by women in maintaining the household: cooking, cleaning, lighting, heating, and laundry. This highly illustrated and delightfully written account looks at the changing role of the housewife over three hundred years. The period covered was one of immense social change--new social and family relationships, scientific advances and economic developments all had an effect on the housewife, some dramatic, others more gradual. Much of what we now take for granted--instant hot water, heat and light at the flick of a switch, fresh food all year round--would have been inconceivable to the many "household managers" represented in this book. With its use of primary material and rare feel for the social history of domestic life, this book will be an entertaining and informative guide to the many changes which have not only made life easier for the housewife but have altered our perceptions of the role itself.




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