The domestic revolution : how the introduction of coal into Victorian homes changed everything / Ruth Goodman.

First American edition.

New York, NY : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, 2020.

©2020

xxi, 330 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

"Originally published in Great Britain under the title The domestic revolution: how the introduction of coal into our homes changed everything"--Title page verso.

""The queen of living history" (Lucy Worsley) returns with an immersive account of how English women sparked a worldwide revolution-from their own kitchens. No single invention epitomizes the Victorian era more than the black cast-iron range. Aware that the twenty-first-century has reduced it to a quaint relic, Ruth Goodman was determined to prove that the hot coal stove provided so much more than morning tea : it might even have kick-started the Industrial Revolution. Wielding the wit and passion seen in How to Be a Victorian, Goodman traces the tectonic shift from wood to coal in the mid-sixteenth century-from sooty trials and errors during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I to the totally smog-clouded reign of Queen Victoria. 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 uproarious anecdotes of Goodman's own experience managing a coal-fired household, this fascinating book shines a hot light on the power of domestic necessity"-- Provided by publisher.

English

December 22, 2020

Includes bibliographical references (pages 310-321) and index.