Define Appertaining To Books At Home: A Short History of Private Life
| Title | : | At Home: A Short History of Private Life |
| Author | : | Bill Bryson |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | First U.S. Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 497 pages |
| Published | : | October 5th 2010 by Doubleday (first published May 27th 2010) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. History. Audiobook. Humor |
Bill Bryson
Hardcover | Pages: 497 pages Rating: 3.97 | 75927 Users | 6107 Reviews
Rendition In Pursuance Of Books At Home: A Short History of Private Life
“Houses aren’t refuges from history. They are where history ends up.” Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as he found it in that comfortable home. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to “write a history of the world without leaving home.” The bathroom provides the occasion for a history of hygiene; the bedroom, sex, death, and sleep; the kitchen, nutrition and the spice trade; and so on, as Bryson shows how each has figured in the evolution of private life. Whatever happens in the world, he demonstrates, ends up in our house, in the paint and the pipes and the pillows and every item of furniture. (front flap)List Books Supposing At Home: A Short History of Private Life
| Original Title: | At Home: A Short History of Private Life |
| ISBN: | 0767919386 (ISBN13: 9780767919388) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Lon Don, Thomas John Gordon Marsham, Mrs Anna Maria Thornton, Louisa Beckford, Edward Townsend Stotesbury, George Templeton Strong, Maria Clutterbuck, James Henry Atkinson, Oliver Belmont, David Clark, Harriet Taylor, Ranald Michie, Henry Dreyfuss, Jonathan Franklin, Merlin D. Tuttle, Daniel Edwards, Cyriacus Ahlers, Thomas A. Watson, Sebastiano Serlio, J. Sterling Morton, Liza Picard, Hannah Cullwick, François Lallemand, Johann Philipp Reis, Pitt Rivers, R. E. Crompton, Joseph Aspdin, George Bayldon, Pasqua Rosee, Charles A. R. Campbell, Arthur Munby, Joseph Bazalgette, Isaac Ware, Brian Ayers, John Landis Mason, Richard Morris Hunt, Gordon Childe, Antony Dale, Dr. Richard Russell, Hermann Sprengel, E. V. McCollum, Carol Heaton, Robert Kerr, Philip Henry Gosse, Alfred Lord Tennyson, William G. Blauvelt, Dennis Pogue, William Greenwell, John Fraser, Addison Mizner, Elias Howe, William Grove, Emily Cockayne, Ötzi, Bryan Donkin, Hamish Hamilton, Lords Carlisle, Alice Vanderbilt, Nicolas-François Appert, Annie Kaplan, Josiah Wedgwood III, King George IV, Joseph Swan, Judith Flanders, Isabella Beeton, Stratton Strawless, George Neville, Frederick Charrington, Humphry Clinker, Calvert Vaux, David Macpherson, E. L. Drake, William Beckford, Baker Brown, Samuel Rogers, Silbury Hill, John Vanbrugh, Daniel Pincot, Eleanor Stanley, Edmund Cartwright, Sutton Courtenay, Peter Willis, John Claudius Loudon, Henry Cartwright, Mary Mercer, James M. Clinton, Gardiner Hubbard, Jane Sotworth, Mark Girouard, Frank Buckland, James Barclay, Feargus O'Connor, Jane Grenville, Edward Tull, Susan Stein, George Pitt, Matthew Digby Wyatt, James Hargreaves, Witold Rybczynski, Eleanor Coade, Juliet Gardiner, Andrew Mellon, J. Alfred Gotch, Thomas Barnardo, Jane Webb, Robert Smythson, Edwin Chadwick, Vere Gordon Childe, Dr George C. Menzies, Henry Cavendish, Edmund Antrobus, Puloroon, Frédéric Bartholdi, Frederick Hale Holmes, Eva Stotesbury, Charles Wentworth Dilke, George S. Rasmussen, Wilson Mizner, Nancy Jones, Lord Scarborough, Simon Jenkins, William K. Vanderbilt, Elizabeth Wayland Barber, Blanchard Jerrold, Skara Brae, Baron Walsingham, John Harington, Commodore Vanderbilt, Robert Marsham, Nathaniel Wyeth, James Mellaart, Duke of Marlborough, Dr Charles P. Gerba, Abraham Gesner, Giovanni Aldini, Edwin Drake, John Farquhar, Thomas Drummond, Aston Clinton, Uriah Phillips Levy, James Woodforde, Cyrus McCormick, John Michell, John Bennet Lawes, Duc de Malakoff, Caroline of Anspach, Robert Fortune, A. Graham Bell, Earl of Carlisle, Casimir Funk, Emma Wedgwood, Duke of Devonshire, Mr. Stotesbury, Orson Fowler, Peter Laslett, Ami Argand, Lord Burlington, Bob Self, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Effie Ruskin, Charlotte Wedgwood, John Frere, Charles Langton, Friedrich Hoffmann, George Peabody, John Harden, Heinrich Hoffmann, John A. Templer, Karl Scheele, Lon Don, Thomas John Gordon Marsham, Mrs Anna Maria Thornton, Robert Southey, Louisa Beckford, Edward Townsend Stotesbury, George Templeton Strong, Maria Clutterbuck, James Henry Atkinson, Oliver Belmont, George Bissell, Lancelot Brown, David Clark, Harriet Taylor, Ranald Michie, Henry Dreyfuss, Jonathan Franklin, Merlin D. Tuttle, Daniel Edwards, Cyriacus Ahlers, Thomas A. Watson, Sebastiano Serlio, J. Sterling Morton, Thomas Bayes, Liza Picard, Hannah Cullwick, François Lallemand, Johann Philipp Reis, Pitt Rivers, R. E. Crompton, Joseph Aspdin, George Bayldon, Pasqua Rosee, Charles A. R. Campbell, Arthur Munby, Joseph Bazalgette, Isaac Ware, Brian Ayers, John Landis Mason, Richard Morris Hunt, Gordon Childe, Antony Dale, Dr. Richard Russell, Hermann Sprengel, E. V. McCollum, Carol Heaton, Robert Kerr, Philip Henry Gosse, Alfred Lord Tennyson, William G. Blauvelt, Dennis Pogue, William Greenwell, John Fraser, Addison Mizner, Elias Howe, William Grove, Emily Cockayne, Ötzi, Bryan Donkin, Hamish Hamilton, Lords Carlisle, Alice Vanderbilt, Nicolas-François Appert, Thomas Crapper, Annie Kaplan, Josiah Wedgwood III, King George IV, Joseph Swan, Judith Flanders, Isabella Beeton, Stratton Strawless, George Neville, Humphry Clinker, Calvert Vaux, David Macpherson, E. L. Drake, William Beckford, Baker Brown, Samuel Rogers, Silbury Hill, John Vanbrugh, Daniel Pincot, Eleanor Stanley, Edmund Cartwright, Sutton Courtenay, Peter Willis, John Claudius Loudon, Henry Cartwright, Mary Mercer, James M. Clinton, Gardiner Hubbard, Jane Sotworth, Mark Girouard, Frank Buckland, James Barclay, Feargus O'Connor, Edmond Halley, Jane Grenville, Edward Tull, Susan Stein, George Pitt, Matthew Digby Wyatt, James Hargreaves, Witold Rybczynski, Eleanor Coade, Juliet Gardiner, Andrew Mellon, J. Alfred Gotch, Thomas Barnardo, Jane Webb, Robert Smythson, Edwin Chadwick, Vere Gordon Childe, Dr George C. Menzies, Henry Cavendish, Edmund Antrobus, Puloroon, Frédéric Bartholdi, Eva Stotesbury, Charles Wentworth Dilke, George S. Rasmussen, Richard Arkwright, Wilson Mizner, Nancy Jones, Lord Scarborough, Simon Jenkins, William K. Vanderbilt, Elizabeth Wayland Barber, Blanchard Jerrold, Skara Brae, Baron Walsingham, John Harington, Commodore Vanderbilt, Robert Marsham, Nathaniel Wyeth, James Mellaart, Duke of Marlborough, Dr Charles P. Gerba, Abraham Gesner, Giovanni Aldini, Aston Clinton, Cyrus McCormick, Frederick Law Olmsted |
| Literary Awards: | Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for History and Biography (2010) |
Rating Appertaining To Books At Home: A Short History of Private Life
Ratings: 3.97 From 75927 Users | 6107 ReviewsComment On Appertaining To Books At Home: A Short History of Private Life
This is a very informative book about everyday furnishings in and around people's homes and how they evolved over the centuries. Bryson mentions that one huge English mansion had a room devoted entirely to cleaning bedpans.I came across a review that dismissed Bill Bryson's work as being entertaining fact collection that doesn't present anything new. I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment, if not the implication. There is nothing wrong with entertaining fact collection, and, in my mind, everything right with it. In this age of information overload, the kind of clear-minded research and fact-sorting he performs for his readers is manna sent from communication heaven. The ability (and the willingness) to collect,
I came across a review that dismissed Bill Bryson's work as being entertaining fact collection that doesn't present anything new. I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment, if not the implication. There is nothing wrong with entertaining fact collection, and, in my mind, everything right with it. In this age of information overload, the kind of clear-minded research and fact-sorting he performs for his readers is manna sent from communication heaven. The ability (and the willingness) to collect,
This is pretty fascinating and I generally like Bill Bryson, but the book is heavily concentrated on the fascinating discoveries/inventions/accomplishments of men. Women are only mentioned for the silly things they did as the wives of these men or for writing silly books Bryson describes as "unreadable then and probably unreadable now." Apparently in all his exhaustive research on the history of private life, Bryson found no significant contributions by women.
"If you had to summarise it in one sentence, the history of domestic life is the history of getting comfortable slowly."Whew... Ladies and gentlemen, I have spent an exhausting yet exhilarating ten days with Bill Bryson at his Norfolk home. When he invited me to take a look at this former Church of England rectory, I hardly expected spend more than an afternoon there - a spot of tea, maybe a couple of beers in the evening, along with the promised tour of the house. But I got much more than I
Proof that a writer does not need to go anywhere outside their home in order to produce a good story.Bill Bryson tells us all about the evolution of our homes in a delightful and personal style.I had previously read this book before I began to oversee my building crew construct my house on the island of Pilar, Philippines. At one point my construction manager asked me about the proposed stairs to the attic. "An angle of 45 degrees", I said, remembering Bryson's detailed notes on safe types of
Bryson brings us another fascinating tome filled with delightful trivia and anecdotes in this history of housing in Britain. The hall as we know it today is a place to leave the muddy boots and hang coats. Originally, it *was* the whole house. With an open hearth in the middle and members of the family (this included slaves and servants since the one large room made everyone party of the unit) congregating around it, little was private and everyone shared in the heat (or lack thereof.) The
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