This book has a dual focus. As its title is meant to suggest, it is a history not just of housework but also of the tools with which that work is done: household technology. Human beings are tool-using animals; indeed, some anthropologists believe that, along with speech,, the ability to use and to refine our tools is precisely what sets us apart from other species of primates.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
* An Introduction: Housework and Its Tools * Housewifery: Household Work and Household Tools under Pre-Industrial Conditions * The Invention of Housework: The Early Stages of Industrialization * Twentieth-Century Changes in Household Technology * The Roads Not Taken: Alternative Social and Technical Approaches to Housework * Household Technology and Household Work between 1900 and 1940 * The Postwar Years * Postscript: Less Work for Mother
