The Domestic Revolution
How the Introduction of Coal into Victorian Homes Changed Everything
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4.3 • 6 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“Our domestic Sherlock brims with excitement” (Roger Lowenstein, Wall Street Journal) in this erudite romp through the smoke-stained, coal-fired houses of Victorian England.
“The queen of living history” (Lucy Worsley) dazzles anglophiles and history lovers alike with this immersive account of how English women sparked a worldwide revolution—from their own kitchens. Wielding the same wit and passion as seen in How to Be a Victorian, Ruth Goodman shows that the hot coal stove provided so much more than morning tea. As Goodman traces the amazing shift from wood to coal in mid-sixteenth century England, a pattern of innovation emerges as the women stoking these fires also stoked new global industries: from better soap to clean smudges to new ingredients for cooking. Laced with irresistibly charming anecdotes of Goodman’s own experience managing a coal-fired household, The Domestic Revolution shines a hot light on the power of domestic necessity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian Goodman (How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England) delivers an immersive account of how England's switch from wood to coal as a primary fuel source sparked massive social change. Between 1570 and 1600, Goodman writes, "a single generation or two of Londoners," many of them women "operating primarily within the domestic sphere," made the change primarily for economic reasons. She draws on recipe collections, property surveys, household accounts, and probate inventories to highlight coal's impact, noting, for instance, changes in the landscape as landowners, considering trees and shrubs less essential, converted heaths and wooded pastures to cropland. Chimneys and smoke-free upstairs rooms accelerated changes to the home, as did gridirons, grates, and cast-iron pots that could handle the higher temperatures coal produced. Rising demand for these domestic products spurred technological innovations that helped pave the way for the Industrial Revolution, Goodman writes. She also describes changes in British cuisine (boiled and baked dishes replaced thick medieval porridges) and the rise of soap and new cleaning standards to deal with sticky, soot-smudged interiors. A consistently witty and knowledgeable narrator, Goodman reveals in this highly informative study how small decisions made by ordinary people can change history.
