At Home: An Anthropology of Domestic Space (Space, Place, and Society)

Rating:
Summary: Well Done
Review: This book consists of a series of papers investigating attitudes towards residential housing and customs of England, Holland, and France. Most papers consider questions about modern housing, but some take a historical viewpoint, looking back to the 19 th century or even earlier. A few have been published elsewhere in other languages or in a different form. For the most part, the topics are highly specialized rather than general, considering, for instance, evidence on domestic conditions drawn from paintings by the Dutch masters, the history of Dutch window shapes, usage, and décor, use of hallways in France, external decorations of privatized council housing, and the history of laundering in Western Europe. The editor, Cieraad, draws these disparate topics together in her masterful introduction. The book includes a unified bibliography and index.

Rating:
Summary: Well Done
Review: This book consists of a series of papers investigating attitudes towards residential housing and customs of England, Holland, and France. Most papers consider questions about modern housing, but some take a historical viewpoint, looking back to the 19 th century or even earlier. A few have been published elsewhere in other languages or in a different form. For the most part, the topics are highly specialized rather than general, considering, for instance, evidence on domestic conditions drawn from paintings by the Dutch masters, the history of Dutch window shapes, usage, and décor, use of hallways in France, external decorations of privatized council housing, and the history of laundering in Western Europe. The editor, Cieraad, draws these disparate topics together in her masterful introduction. The book includes a unified bibliography and index.