Synopses & Reviews
Never Done is the first history of American housework. Beginning with a description of household chores of the nineteenth century--cooking at fireplaces and on cast-iron stoves, laundry done with wash boilers and flatirons, endless water hauling and fire tending--Susan Strasser demonstrates how industrialization transformed the nature of women's work. Lightening some tasks and eliminating the need for others, new commercial processes inexorably altered women's daily lives and relationships--with each other and with the people they served.
In this lively and authoritative book, Strasser weaves together the history of material advances and discussions of domestic service, "women's separate sphere" and the impact of advertising, home economics and women's entry into the workforce.
Hailed as pathbreaking when originally published, Never Done remains an eye-opening examination of daily life in the American past.
Review
"A work of genius...marvelous to read." (Carolyn See, Los Angeles Times Book Review)
Review
"A work of genius. . . marvelous to read."--Carolyn See,
Los Angeles Times Book Review"Lively and provocative. . . a wonderful book. For bringing housework into the light of historical scholarship, Strasser deserves to have her name become a household word."--Jacqueline Jones, author of American Work: Four Centuries of Black and White Labor
"Remarkable, rich and acute"--The New Yorker
Review
"A work of genius. . . marvelous to read."--Carolyn See,
Los Angeles Times Book Review"Lively and provocative. . . a wonderful book. For bringing housework into the light of historical scholarship, Strasser deserves to have her name become a household word."--Jacqueline Jones, author of American Work: Four Centuries of Black and White Labor
"Remarkable, rich and acute"--The New Yorker
Synopsis
Finally back in print, with a new Preface by the author, this lively, authoritative, and pathbreaking study considers the history of material advances and domestic service, the "women's separate sphere," and the respective influences of advertising, home economics, and women's entry into the workforce.
Never Done begins by describing the household chores of nineteenth-century America: cooking at fireplaces and on cast-iron stoves, laundry done with boilers and flatirons, endless water-hauling and fire-tending, and so on. Strasser goes on to explain and explore how industrialization transformed the nature of women's work. Easing some tasks and eliminating others, new commercial processes inexorably altered women's daily lives and relationships—with each other and with those they served.
About the Author
Susan Stasser is the author of
Waste and Want and
Satisfaction Guaranteed: The Making of the American Mass Market. Her articles have appeared in
The New York Times,
The Washington Post, and
The Nation. A professor of history at the University of Delaware, she lives near Washington, D.C.