Synopsis
A stylish, incisive study of the American home traces the relationship that exists between women and their homes and the ways in which that relationship has changed over the last century. 10,000 first printing.
Reviews
Jane Davison's daughter Lesley has undertaken a labor of love in refurbishing and reissuing her mother's last book, originally published in 1980 as Fall of a Doll's House. Jane Davison, wife of poet Peter Davison, wrote--just before her premature death at age 49--what was then hailed as a classic history of the love-hate relationship between the American housewife and her place of residence. The changes in household management between 1900 and 1960 make interesting reading, especially the profound transformation brought about by the substitution of the refrigerator and the clothes washer for the previously ubiquitous and hard-to-manage servants. The more recent events covered here like women's liberation and the arrival of the perennial question "What do you do?"--Answer "Nothing. I'm just a housewife."--seem dated. Lesley Davison's additions do not stand up to her mother's original. The puzzling title change will annoy those who fail to realize this is essentially a reissue with the addition of wonderful contemporary illustrations and photographs. However, the Davisons' book is a mine of information for the social historian and the culturally curious. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
First published in 1980 as The Fall of a Doll's House (LJ 3/1/80), this book adds two chapters and a fourth generation's perspective. It is a sometimes rambling, sometimes remarkable social history examining the homes and lives of a grandmother, mother, daughter, and granddaughter in relation to the culture of homemaking in the United States from 1900 to the 1980s. Insightful use of family material-particularly the grandmother's diaries-sociological observation, architectural works, selections from women's magazines, poetry, and literature inform this analysis of women's self-expression through homemaking. Related titles include Glenna Matthews's Just a Housewife (LJ 10/1/87) and, perhaps to bring the theme full circle, Pamela A. Piljac's You Can Go Home Again (Bryce-Waterton Pubs., 1985). Appropriate for general readers and women's studies and social history collections.
Linda V. Carlisle, Southern Illinois Univ., Edwardsville
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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