The Making of Home: The 500-Year Story of How Our Houses Became Our Homes

And the definition of home is still changing and the author alluded to this in her book. Curious, I quizzed my teenage sons and found her to be on track. I was quite surprised to find the history of the home to be less nostalgic than I expected. I did ask my mother when piped water and sewer came to town as we live in a small western town and I already knew she remembered electricity coming to town. It's amazing to consider that the home we know today is so variable and fleeting and Flanders does an excellent job of following it through the centuries and across the countries.

Detail dense - that's its strength, especially if you have some familiarity with the subject matter. The problem is with the writing. Development of material within chapters wander terribly without a clear connection (like watching those meandering PBS nature documentaries). I found myself many times wondering what year, what period, what country I was reading about. Very frustrating - and I've read a fair amount on the subject. Flanders (and her editors) seem to have a limited concept about how to write for readers (organizing and making clear connections). And because the book is so broadly focused, in time and in geography, it's easy to overgeneralize or even make contradictory statements in different sections of the book. But again, lots of detail, some good "aha" moments.

Haven’t finished the book yet, but what I’ve read is informative and interesting. Always looking for good nonfiction books with facts about mankind and this adds to my collection.

A totally fascinating but very readable study of how the various elements that we more or less take for granted as making up "home" have their own distinctive and often surprising histories. Highly recommended.

Borrowed this from my library first and really liked it. It's a nice readable study of the development of the modern idea of home. It's a good addition to my research library used for family history and other pursuits.

BUYER BEWARE! The author makes reference to reproductions of paintings to illustrate her various points. If you are reading this on your Kindle you won't find them. There is no plate section. Unfair Amazon, and why aren't they included in the e edition? Love the book but not the exclusion.

The story line was slow and I wouldn't recommend it.

Traces hundreds of years through wills, estate records of belongings, illustrates the development of the concept of home, furnishings, kitchens to modern day living.

I try not to write negative reviews as I always look for the positive, but i'm struggling here. Firstly, this has not been 100% optimised for Kindle - it does not have the chapter breaks marked so you can't see how far you are to the end of the chapter.Secondly, the writing is hard to follow - the author has clearly done a lot of research and investigation, but the story jumps about eras in paragraphs let alone in chapters. I really tried to keep reading but it wasn't enjoyable, sorry.

I have no knowledge of home interiors history beyond that absorbed by living in a home, so some of the facts exposed in this book were a revelation to me. I know a lot about the architectural development of houses, but did not realize that the contents were unheard of before the renaissance.

Gosh had this book for ages now. If you like 'domestic social history' you will love this. More of a woman's book

Very intresting for fans of historical fiction

Informative. And on special offer too.