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A Short History of Private Life
Bill Bryson
ISBN: 9780552772556
Format: Paperback
Publisher:Transworld Publishers Ltd
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What does history really consists of? Centuries of people quietly going about their daily business - sleeping, eating, having sex, endeavouring to get comfortable. And where did all these normal activities take place? At home. This book describes the history of the way we live.
What does history really consists of? Centuries of people quietly going about their daily business - sleeping, eating, having sex, endeavouring to get comfortable. And where did all these normal activities take place? At home. This was the thought that inspired Bill Bryson to start a journey around the rooms of his own house, an 1851 Norfolk rectory, to consider how the ordinary things in life came to be. And what he discovered are surprising connections to anything from the Crystal Palace to the Eiffel Tower, from scurvy to body-snatching,from bedbugs to the Industrial Revolution, and just about everything else that has ever happened, resulting in one of the most entertaining and illuminating books ever written about the history of the way we live.
| ISBN | 0552772550 | | Pages | 704 | | ISBN13 | 9780552772556
(What's this?) | | Weight (grammes) | 560 | | Publisher | Transworld Publishers Ltd | | Published in | London | | Imprint | Black Swan | | Height (mm) | 198 | | Format | Paperback | | Width (mm) | 128 | | Publication date | 26 May 2011 | | Spine width (mm) | 43 | | DEWEY | 909 | | Academic level | General | | DEWEY edition | DC22 | |
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PRAISE FOR "AT HOME: A Short History of Private Life" ..".a delightful stroll through the history of domestic life. Now living in a 19th-century church rectory in Norfolk, England, the author decided to learn about the ordinary things of life by exploring each room in his house.... In a sense, Bryson's book is a history of "getting comfortable slowly..".. Informative, readable and great fun."--"Kirkus Reviews"(starred) "[D]elightful.... Considering our homes means a dash through history, politics, science, sex, and dozens of other fields. If this book doesn't supply you with five years' worth of dinner conversation, you're not paying attention."--"PEOPLE magazine ""Fascinating.... Join this ambiable tour guide as he wanders through his house, a former rectory built in 1851 in a tranquil English village.... [It] takes a very particular kind of thoughtfulness, as well as a bold temperament, to stuff all this research into a mattress that's supportive enough to lo
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