The Reshaping of Everyday Life, 1790–1840: 1790-1840 (Everyday Life in America)

Overview This is a 349-page, hardbound book in 6" x 9" format that deals with exactly what the name implies, namely, how everyday life changed in the period from 1790 when George Washington was President to 1840 when William Henry Harrison was running for President on a campaign of "log cabins and cider." It was written in 1988 by Jack Larkin who was then the 45-year-old Chief Historian at Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. His occupation was an excellent background for writing this book, because he is able to reach into the rich resources of that historical village to describe the way ordinary people lived in that 50-year period. He explains that it is his mission to uncover and write about the things that have been taken for granted in everyday life. For example, how did a person travel from Boston to New York in 1790 and how did that change? We learn that if one could afford it, they took the stage coach in 1790. It took 10 or 11 days and cost the equivalent of eight days' wages. Then he goes on to give a detailed description of a stage coach including the perils of such a ride. We read about the crowding of nine people in a small, dark space on three seats, the bumpy ride, the snow whipping through the curtains and the primitive lodgings along the way. The railroad would revolutionize such a trip.Organization The book is organized into seven meaty chapters, each of which focuses on a separate aspect of daily life from typical working conditions, to schooling, to travel and transportation, to simple pleasures and entertainment, to marriage and family customs, and housing arrangements. The book concludes with a rich bibliography of primary sources such as "Domestic Manners of the Americans" written in 1832 by the upper-class Englishwoman, Frances Trollope, as well as excellent secondary sources that the author used for each of his seven chapters. There is also an excellent index. In the middle of the book are inserted a dozen glossy pages which offer excellent, high quality illustrations - maps and reproductions of period paintings.What I found useful My particular interest happens to be "everyday life" in all its richness. I wanted to learn how people dressed, what their houses were like, their courting customs, their religious lives, how they traveled from place to place and so on. The book was richly satisfying in these themes. The author has a gift for recreating a scene so that you feel you are there. For example, when the pianoforte (the precursor of the modern piano) first appeared in American homes around 1800, it caused quite a sensation. First, it was expensive. A good pianoforte cost about $600 or equivalent to the price of a small house in those days. It was a status symbol. Second, for a world accustomed to the simple sounds of a fiddle or flute or drum, the richness of the sounds and the chords was mesmerizing. Young boys would gather under the living room window in the evening to listen to the lady of the household playing this wonderful instrument. It is this recapturing of sights, sounds and smells that I found so enjoyable.What was disappointing Let me confess that I just loved this book. So, the only thing that disappointed me was that I wished the book were twice as long and presented twice as much material.Who might like this book? This is a very accessible, readable book. It is certainly aimed at the general reader. It might be refreshing background reading for a serious professional student of American history, but that is not its forte. Its strength is that it is a lovely read for the general reader who is curious about how everyday people lived when President Washington was in office and the remarkable changes that took place during the first half of the 1800's as American expanded fourfold in population and people began moving to the cities. I give it five stars.

I'll start by saying that this book does include interesting and useful information about the everyday lives of the people of this time. But I'll also say that I had to kick in my internal "BS filter" on many occasions while reading this book. Several times I nearly stopped reading it. It's not that the book is blatantly inaccurate (although I would question a number of points), it's more along the lines of the author writing with a specific agenda or "message" in mind. That's not why I read history. I want the author out of the manuscript--I expect transparency on the part of the writer. Unfortunately, in too many places, it's simply not the case with this book.Again, there IS useful and fascinating info in the book--that's why I bothered to finish reading it. I think overall, the bulk of the book is useful and interesting. But this author clearly has an "angle" as he writes this book. I'm not going to get into the specific politics or "message," but it's clearly there if you know how to read critically. There is a clear social and political bias. The author mainly does this with two "tools": the first is that he overemphasizes certain aspects of social behavior at the time by using hyperbole (mainly). I can't count the number of times I rolled my eyes, and on more than one occasion I laughed aloud--yeah, funny... but then I'm not reading the book to be amused. At times it seems I was reading about a nation populated with reality show contestants or a bunch of vicious slobs. If some of what the author states were as commonplace as he leads us to believe, we wouldn't have a country today. He tends to take things or situations that did indeed exist in the "micro" and present it as widespread and common.The second thing he does to bias the presentation is "cherry pick" his sources. On reading it, you'll notice that he quotes from diaries and writings of a very few individuals through the whole book (largely). Sure, those sources are probably worth including, but I contend that he picked them mainly to shape the views of the text (and thus the reader). I know for a fact that diaries and journals were not all that uncommon and that the literacy rate at the time was not so abysmal that we cannot find textual accounts of the time through different "lenses" than those presented. He most often presents famous writers or travellers of the time. Nothing wrong with that, but there needs to be far more "common man/woman" perspective, and far less social agenda perspective that certainly appears in the quotes he includes. It would be similar to including a history of today sourced mainly by political activists, Hollywood types, and politicians... while leaving out any perspective from the everyday citizen. Don't get me wrong, there IS some perspective from the everyday citizen, but it is highly stilted in the other direction. And at times, even the quotes from the average citizen are quotes from an activist of the time or someone writing to make a point rather than describing their lives or times in total.So, overall, this book is a mixed bag. I think it's worth reading if you are interested in that time. Just be willing to filter it as you go, because if you've been taught to read critically at all on any level, the lens that Mr. Larkin is writing through is quite clear. I gave it three stars: fives stars for the actual unbiased information (and to be fair, there is some in there) and one star for the political/social posturing. Thing is, these people have been dead for two hundred years, so they can't come back and set the record straight. You can paint them any color you like, and I would have preferred a more transparent presentation.

This is a social history narrative. It is well written and full of interesting information concerning the daily lives of people in the post-colonial period. For example: Chimney's were sometimes cleaned by dropping a chicken down it so the flapping wings would remove built up pitch and creosote. The Justice of the Peace in local villages was responsible for tax collection, inspecting fences, an arrest of individuals accused of crimes. Often, they would only visit offenders and tell them of the accusation and pending trial -they would not follow through with the arrest because it would take people away from daily work which was necessary for the common good of the village. Every farmer rating livestock cut idiosyncratic shapes into their animals ears and those shapes were registered with the county clerk to determine branding/ownership. Learn when houses were first painted, what people did with their trash, traffic jams -yes, there were often traffic jams when someone lost a wagon wheel because roads were crude, narrow and alignment to furrowed wheel ruts where necessary for smooth, efficient travel. It is a refreshing look at this historical period because it doesn't re-hash the standard political and military events which give us a "nationalistic" image of the past. Instead, this book offers what life was like for the common person who was so often disengaged from those concerns because of the base need of simply surviving each day.

西部劇映画にハマって、簡単な『西部開拓時代』の入門書的なものをいくつか読んだけれども、「もっと具体的に当時の人々が食べていたもの、使っていたものを知りたいな〜」と思っていた。この本は開拓期の人々の日常ー食べるもの・住んでいた家・家事労働や結婚・出産、それに性生活から悪臭にまみれていた町の様子などーが描かれている。読み進むうちに、ぼんやりとしかイメージできなかった開拓時代の生活が色鮮やかに浮かんでくる。文章も読みやすく、西部劇程度の知識しかない者にとっては大変ありがたい一冊。

Purchased as an overview look at life in early America because of family history research.