If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Have you ever wondered why your house is divided into the specific rooms we use today, and which everyday objects were once considered ultimate symbols of status?
- Did you know that the history of your bathroom and kitchen is filled with bizarre tales of global trade, accidental inventions, and even deadly fashion trends?
- Are you curious about how the smallest details of your domestic life—from the salt on your table to the shape of your stairs—were actually shaped by centuries of social revolution?
Listen to At Home — Free Audiobook
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Key Takeaways from At Home
- Discover why early canned food was so difficult to access that soldiers had to shoot their rations open, and how historical food adulteration meant consumers routinely ingested acid and dust.
- Learn how a lack of limestone and rapidly dwindling timber supplies forced early American colonists to radically change their building methods and adopt stone construction.
- Understand how the financial fallout of the American Revolutionary War led to a British brick tax, forcing Londoners to disguise their homes with stucco to maintain fashionable appearances.
- Find out why nineteenth-century mattresses were stuffed with coarse materials like straw and sawdust, turning a simple night's sleep into a nightly battle against rats and bedbugs.
- Explore the bizarre nineteenth-century beliefs surrounding the bedroom, where the fear of sexual arousal led doctors to advise pregnant women against stimulating activities like playing board games.
Learning Tools
Reinforce what you learned from At Home
Mind Map
At Home
Kitchen & Food History+
Building Materials+
The Bedroom & Morality+
The Bathroom & Hygiene+
The Dining Room+
Quiz — Test Your Understanding
Question 1 of 6
Why were the first metal cans, invented by Bryan Donkin in the early nineteenth century, highly impractical for the average consumer?
Question 2 of 6
Why did early British colonists in North America initially struggle to build durable homes, leading them to eventually rely on wood?
Question 3 of 6
What caused traditional brick to fall out of favor as a building material in late eighteenth-century Britain?
Question 4 of 6
In the nineteenth century, why were women advised to avoid activities like reading or playing board games?
Question 5 of 6
How did the outbreak of the bubonic plague impact medieval society's view on bathing?
Question 6 of 6
According to the text, what is the primary historical difference between human consumption of salt and pepper?
At Home — Full Chapter Overview
- 1Recommendation
- 21 — Soldiers once had to shoot cans open to reach the food inside, and food safety was generally poor.
- 32 — A shortage of limestone and timber in America led British colonists to build with stone.
- 43 — Fashion also shaped building materials, and London’s bricks had an uneven history.
- 54 — A nineteenth-century bed was often filled with straw and shared with rodents and bugs.
- 65 — Ancient Romans loved baths, while medieval thinkers believed dirt brought you closer to God.
- 76 — We eat salt to survive, but we use pepper because it became popular, as the ancient Romans said.
- 87 — Final summary
At Home Summary & Overview
At Home (2010) offers an in-depth look at the history of the home. These blinks walk you through stories that each “take place” in a different room in a house, explaining the history of spaces such as a bathroom or kitchen. Interestingly, you’ll explore how each space evolved into the rooms we live in today.
Who Should Listen to At Home?
- Students of sociology, anthropology and history
- People with an interest in the history of domestic life
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