The Complete Home cover

The Complete Home

Rating 2.6
Word count
372K words
Chapters
38

Tags

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Complete Home by Sarah Cory Rippey, Oliver R. Williamson, and Clara E. LaughlinAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: TX: Technology: Home economics, Release Date: Sep 4, 2005

Editor's review

An electronic reprint of an old English book on home economics, covering household management, domestic life, and everyday technology, and bearing the clear marks of its era. Its value lies mainly in its documentary and comparative interest: readers can see the framework of early ideas about household management and compare past and present lifestyles and divisions of domestic labor. The text is in English, and its length and format are those of a practical manual, better suited to selective reading by topic than to reading straight through. Readers interested in the history of domestic science, daily life, or technology may treat it as a primary source; general readers should read it comparatively and note that its advice was shaped by the conditions of its time and should not be applied directly.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers studying the history of domestic science and daily life
  • Social science enthusiasts interested in changing ideas of household management
  • Translators seeking samples of old-fashioned English practical manuals
  • Those interested in domestic technology in the early twentieth century

Not a good fit for

  • Readers seeking a modern household how-to guide
  • Those who struggle with English and do not wish to use reference tools
  • Researchers expecting systematic theory or scholarly argument

Reading tips

  1. Read selectively by chapter topic, starting with the table of contents and choosing sections related to household management.
  2. Take notes on differences between past and present as you read, building your own comparative record.
  3. Check the background of old appliances and methods to avoid mistaking them for current advice.
  4. Read alongside domestic-economics works of the same period to observe similarities and differences in ideas.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38

FAQ

Is this book about modern home renovation?
No. It is an early practical work on home economics, dealing with household management and domestic life in a clearly dated context; it is not a contemporary guide to renovation or interior design.
How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for beginners?
The text is an old English work whose sentence patterns and vocabulary bear the marks of its time, so it poses some difficulty for beginners. Use a dictionary and begin with the plainer chapters listed in the table of contents, progressing gradually.
Can the advice in the book still be followed today?
It should not be applied directly. Its methods were limited by the material conditions and ideas of the time and are better treated as historical reference; anyone wishing to use them today must judge them against modern standards of safety and hygiene.

Comments

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