Made from Scratch: Reclaiming the Pleasures of the American Hearth

Rating:
Summary: A "pleasure" to read!
Review: "Made From Scratch: Reclaiming the Pleasures of the American Hearth" by Jean Zimmerman is a beautifully written book describing the history and current state of the art of homemaking in America. Zimmerman, who comes from a long line of Southern roots matrons, was hit head on with the power of feminism in high school and college, catapulting her far away from her domestic foremothers. Now, a wife, mother and author, she has comprehensively researched her subject and presents it in straight-forward and intimate style. This book oozes with insightful anecdotes and facts about the modernization of American Homemaking, and what it reveals about our society in general. Vividly interesting, entertaining, and thought provoking. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Too Bad She Didn't
Review: For the first 200 pages of this book, the author seems to have a love-hate view of "housewifery", appliances, societal changes, and never does seem to arrive at an opinion as to which is more desirable: a return to simpler times when the home was the center of family life versus the vissitudes and amenities of modern life. She advocates for both and neither. In the very end of the book, she finally lets slip that she enjoys and finds personal fulfillment in the needle arts of knitting, crocheting, and quilting. Read the last chapter and skip the rest.

This book does not contain illustrations, recipes, or much in the way of constructive suggestion as to how to recapture the presumed pleasure of the American hearth. It reads like a very long and dull diatribe lamenting that society and "home-made" have changed without ever getting her point across. The end notes and source lists are huge, leaving this reader wondering why this author never quite makes her point. Will she ever make up her mind?

Rating:
Summary: Too Bad She Didn't
Review: For the first 200 pages of this book, the author seems to have a love-hate view of "housewifery", appliances, societal changes, and never does seem to arrive at an opinion as to which is more desirable: a return to simpler times when the home was the center of family life versus the vissitudes and amenities of modern life. She advocates for both and neither. In the very end of the book, she finally lets slip that she enjoys and finds personal fulfillment in the needle arts of knitting, crocheting, and quilting. Read the last chapter and skip the rest.

This book does not contain illustrations, recipes, or much in the way of constructive suggestion as to how to recapture the presumed pleasure of the American hearth. It reads like a very long and dull diatribe lamenting that society and "home-made" have changed without ever getting her point across. The end notes and source lists are huge, leaving this reader wondering why this author never quite makes her point. Will she ever make up her mind?