The idea that "home" is a special place, a place where we can be our true selves, is so obvious to us today that we barely pause to think about it. And yet, as Judith Flanders posits here, the transformation of houses into homes was an essential ingredient in the rise of capitalism and the Industrial Revolution. Tracing the evolution of the house across northern Europe and America from the 16th to the early 20th century, Flanders illuminates the development of household objects from cutlery, chairs, and curtains to fitted kitchens, plumbing, and windows. She also peels back the myths that surround some of our most basic assumptions, including our entire notion of what it is that makes a family.

"In this clever and entertaining book Flanders gives the everyday—from bed-making to drainpipes—all the vivid interest of something newly made strange."—Sunday Times (London)

"Judith Flanders has many interesting, and sometimes startling, things to say about what domesticity means to us, how that meaning changed—and how it has endured.... She is an efficient debunker of myths about poverty, family and the past."—Financial Times (London)