At Home: A Short History of Private Life

Bryson, Bill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385619170 ISBN 13: 9780385619172

Publisher: Doubleday, 2010

In At Home, Bill Bryson applies the same irrepressible curiosity, irresistible wit, stylish prose and masterful storytelling that made A Short History of Nearly Everything one of the most lauded books of the last decade, and delivers one of the most entertaining and illuminating books ever written about the history of the way we live. Bill Bryson was struck one day by the thought that we devote a lot more time to studying the battles and wars of history than to considering what history really consists of: centuries of people quietly going about their daily business - eating, sleeping and merely endeavouring to get more comfortable. And that most of the key discoveries for humankind can be found in the very fabric of the houses in which we live.This inspired him to start a journey around his own house, an old rectory in Norfolk, wandering from room to room considering how the ordinary things in life came to be. Along the way he did a prodigious amount of research on the history of anything and everything, from architecture to electricity, from food preservation to epidemics, from the spice trade to the Eiffel Tower, from crinolines to toilets; and on the brilliant, creative and often eccentric minds behind them. And he discovered that, although there may seem to be nothing as unremarkable as our domestic lives, there is a huge amount of history, interest and excitement - and even a little danger - lurking in the corners of every home.

Review:

"Delightful. . . . Bryson's enthusiasm brightens any dull corner. . . . Hand over control and simply enjoy the ride." -"The New York Times Book Review" "An exuberant, shared social history. . . . Told with Bryson's habitual brio. . . . A personal compendium of fascinating facts, suggesting how the history of houses and domesticity has shaped our lives, language, and ideas." -"The New York Review of Books""A treasure trove. . . . Playful, yes, but Bryson is also a deft historian." -"Los Angeles Times""If this book doesn't supply you with five years' worth of dinner conversation, you're not paying attention." -"People" "Bryson is fascinated by everything, and his curiosity is infectious. . . . You can take this class in your pajamas--and, judging by the book's laid-back, comfy tone, I have a sneaking suspicion that Bryson wrote much of it in his." -"New York Times Book Review" "The experience of reading a Bill Bryson book is something you don't wa

From the Author:

Hello.

Early in the course of my research for my new book I learned that houses are amazingly complex repositories. What I found, to my great surprise, is that whatever happens in the world - whatever is discovered or created or bitterly fought over - eventually ends up, in one way or another, in your house.

Wars, famines, the Industrial Revolution, the Enlightenment - they are all there in your sofas and chests of drawers, tucked in to the folds of your curtains, in the downy softness of your pillows, in the paint on your walls and the water in your pipes.

Houses aren't refuges from history, as I hope you are about to discover in At Home. They are where history ends up.

Bill Bryson