Cheap, Quick, and Easy: Imitative Architectural Materials, 1870-1930

Rating:
Summary: informative, engagingly written story of ... linoleum ?????
Review: Who'da thought that anyone would research and write about the history of linoleum? Or that an enjoyable book would emerge? The topic is actually the whole range of decorative materials that began to be used around the turn of the century to let middle-class people's homes look upper-crust (i.e., as if they could afford marble floors and ornately decorated plaster ceilings).

No ... wait. It's really about the triumph of middle-class values ... and one of the earliest advertising campaigns (aimed at convincing Mrs. American Housewife that she simply had to rush right out and buy this stuff, 60 years before Ring Around the Collar but the same strategy).

It's a seriously researched academic book, but the good news is that it's cleverly written, jargon-free and doesn't take itself too seriously.