1st Edition
The Single Homemaker and Material Culture in the Long Eighteenth Century
The Single Homemaker and Material Culture in the Long Eighteenth Century represents a new synthesis of gender history and material culture studies. It seeks to analyse the lives and cultural expression of single men and women from 1650 to 1850 within the main focus of domestic activity, the home. Whilst there is much scholarly interest in singleness and a raft of literature on the construction and apprehension of the home, no other book has sought to bring these discrete studies together. Similarly, scholarly work has been limited in evaluating gendered consumption practices during the long eighteenth century because of an emphasis on the homes of families. Analysing the practices of single people emphasises the differences, but also amplifies the similarities, in their strategies of domestic life.
Biography
David Hussey is subject leader in History at the University of Wolverhampton, UK, and Margaret Ponsonby is Senior Lecturer in History and Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Wolverhampton.
'Domestic space is very much at the centre: the authors see the home, as many social historians are increasingly doing, as 'a cockpit wherein the cultures of consumption were defined and exercised'. We benefit enormously from their decision to consider single men and women together, which makes the comparative role of the account constantly illuminating.' History
