From fireplace to cookstove : technology and the domestic ideal in America Priscilla J. Brewer

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brewer, Priscilla J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Stoves--Social aspects--United States.

Stoves.

Stoves--United States--History.

Physical Description:

xix, 338 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Syracuse, New York. : Syracuse University Press, 2000.

Summary:

"In one of the first works to treat this significant subject, Priscilla J. Brewer examines the development and history of the first American appliance - the cast-iron stove - which created a quiet but culturally contested transformation of domestic life and many important debates about the role of women, industrialization, the definition of social class, and the development of a consumer economy."

"Brewer covers impressive new ground, exploring the shift from fireplaces to stoves for cooking and heating in American homes, and sheds new light on the supposedly "separate spheres" of home and the world in nineteenth-century America. She also considers the changing responses to technological development, the emergence of a consumer ethic, and the attempt to define and preserve a distinct Anglo-American middle-class culture." "Extensively documented - based on letters, diaries, probate inventories, census records, sales figures, advertisements, fiction, and advice literature - the book will be valuable to scholars of American history and women's studies."--Jacket.

Contents:

1. "Good Living for Those That Love Good Fire" 1

2. "So Much of the Comfort of Our Lives Depends on Fire" 15

3. "The Art of Economizing Fuel" 38

4. "A Great Variety of Stoves Just Received" 63

5. "Near a Stove the Heart Builds No Altars" 95

6. "We Have Got a Very Good Cooking Stove" 118

7. "This Necessary Evil

The Cooking Stove" 153

8. "The Disappearing Kitchen Range" 191

9. "A Nice, Clean Fire Whenever Needed" 221

10. "Rediscovering the Woodburning Cookstove" 241.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-324) and index.

Local Notes:

HSP Historic Culinary Arts Collection

Other Format:

Online version: Brewer, Priscilla J. From fireplace to cookstove.

ISBN:

0815606508

9780815606505

OCLC:

43708513