Never Done: A History of American HouseworkFinally back in print, with a new Preface by the author, this lively, authoritative, and pathbreaking study considers the history of material advances and domestic service, the "women's separate sphere," and the respective influences of advertising, home economics, and women's entry into the workforce. Never Done begins by describing the household chores of nineteenth-century America: cooking at fireplaces and on cast-iron stoves, laundry done with boilers and flatirons, endless water-hauling and fire-tending, and so on. Strasser goes on to explain and explore how industrialization transformed the nature of women's work. Easing some tasks and eliminating others, new commercial processes inexorably altered women's daily lives and relationships—with each other and with those they served. |
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Contents
DAILY BREAD | 11 |
OUT OF THE FRYING PAN | 32 |
THE HOME FIRES | 50 |
AT THE FLICK OF A SWITCH | 67 |
FETCH A FAIL OF WATER | 85 |
BLUE MONDAY | 104 |
A STITCH IN TIME | 125 |
THE BOARDER | 145 |
THE BUSINESS OF HOUSEKEEPING | 202 |
WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS | 224 |
SELLING MRS CONSUMER | 242 |
QUICK AND EASY | 263 |
YOU DESERVE A BREAK | 282 |
LIFE ON THE MARKET | 300 |
SOURCE NOTES | 313 |
PICTURE CREDITS | 352 |
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Common terms and phrases
advertising American appeared Beecher began better boarding bought called century Chicago child cities cleaning clothes Colonial common consumers continued cooking cost daily depended designed developed directions domestic domestic service early economic electric established factory Farm fire fuel hand heat History home economics household housekeeping housework husbands important individual industry iron keep kind kitchen labor later laundry less light living machines maintained manufacturers mass mothers needed never nineteenth century offered operated PAGE percent problem profit reformers separate servants sewing social society sphere Standard stove suggested task things tion took towns turn United University urban wanted washing woman women wood workers wrote York young
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Never Done: A History of American Housework |
| Author | Susan Strasser |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Macmillan, 2000 |
| ISBN | 0805067744, 9780805067743 |
| Length | 384 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Social History Social Science / Sociology / Marriage & Family Social Science / Women's Studies |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |