The invention of comfort : sensibilities & design in early modern Britain & early America / John E. Crowley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Crowley, John E., 1943-

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Households--United States--History.

Households.

Households--Great Britain--History.

House furnishings--United States--History.

House furnishings.

House furnishings--Great Britain--History.

History.

United States--Social life and customs.

United States.

Manners and customs.

Great Britain--Social life and customs.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

xi, 361 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Baltimore, Md. : Johns Hopkins University Press, [2001]

Summary:

How did our modern ideas of physical well-being originate? As John Crowley demonstrates in "The Invention of Comfort, " changes in sensible technology owed a great deal to fashion-conscious elites discovering "dis"comfort in surroundings they earlier had felt to be satisfactory. Written in an engaging style that will appeal to historians and material culture specialists as well as to general readers, this pathbreaking work brings together such disparate topics of analysis as climate, fire, food, clothing, the senses, and anxiety--especially about the night.

Contents:

Commodious comfort : hall and hearth, chamber and chimney

Civil comfort : mansion houses

Colonial comfort : vernacular and elegant options

Decent comfort : candles and mirrors

Convenient comfort : political economy

Enlightened comfort : stoves and lamps

Picturesque comfort : the cottage

Healthy comfort : the piazza

Gendered comfort : house design books.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

0801864372

OCLC:

43851308