Colonial Living

By Edwin Tunis

Book Overview

Colonial Living is EdwinTunis's a vigorous re-creation of 17th- and 18th-century America--of the everyday living of those sturdy men and women who carved a way of life out of the wilderness. In lively... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B000NPMGRW
• Release Date: June 1957
• Publisher: World
• Length: 155 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Tools, techniques, and customs

"Colonial Living" is written and illustrated by Edwin Tunis, who has written and illustrated several related books. He also produced a 145-foot mural depicting the "History of Species." This is a nice “crossover” book for those interested in history, everyday life in the Thirteen Colonies, and craft tools. He gives a good overview as intended. However, there are no real depths other than an overview. For example, the section on food covers a few pages and shows common cooking and eating utensils, but if you want to know how to use them or how the food is prepared, you will need a book that has more depth. This is not in all cases, but a good page and a half covers the contents and techniques of brick making. Of course, I would not want to make one from the information. This book is a good starting place for information on Colonial Living. You will notice the absence of an index or a Bibliography.

Wonderful Social History Book of Colonial America

Here in the 21st century, life in 18th century (and before) colonial America is quickly becoming forgotten. Programs on the History Channel (a highly questionable name for the station considering what it shows every night) tend to concentrate more on the latter half of the 20th century than on the previous centuries. It's books like this by Edwin Tunis that keep our colonial heritage alive. "Colonial Living" covers virtually everything of the everyday lives of our ancestors. From the cities they lived in to furniture to what they ate to heating themselves to modes of travel to occupations to homes to clothing to...well, you get the picture. And speaking of pictures, this book is filled with accurate illustrations drawn by the author himself. Yarnwinders, a jack bed, carding paddles, signs, rooms, men's wigs, bricks, fire scoop, a hay fork - hundreds of excellent drawings. The text is lively and comprehensive, giving details that compliments the sketches greatly. It is my understanding that this book was originally written (back in 1957) for the youth market, but if the only thing that separates this book from an 'adult' history book are the illustrations, then I will gladly take this 'kids' book. A museum in a book, that's what this is.

Wow !!!

I've read many books on Colonial America, so I didn't expect to glean any additional insights when I picked this up and started to read it. I WAS SO VERY WRONG. I couldn't put it down. Congratulations and kudos to Mr. Tunis for a job well done.

First encountered as a child now enjoyed as an adult

Edwin Tunis' book recreating early colonial American life is one of teh best books on the subject, providing by illustration and written word a recreation of what life was like during the colonial period for early Americans showing us their homes and their technology. A must have for anyone interested in this period.

Even adults should read it.

Team this volume with Tunis's "Frontier Living" (though there's a bit of overlap in the time periods covered) and you'll have a good, sound, easily understood social history of the first 280 years of the USA. As always, his illustrations are clear and detailed and his text well written and easy to follow. If, for whatever reason, you can't visit an actual reconstructed Colonial community, having this book on your shelf is the next best thing. (Much of the information in it can probably be carried forward into the early and mid-19th Century, too.) A classic of its type and one we should all be overjoyed to see back in print.

For those who can't get to Williamsburg

I first read . . . and re-read . . . and re-re-read this book in the late 1960s after discovering it in my junior high school library. I always wished I had a copy for reference and the sheer joy of seeing Tunis's amazingly detailed drawings and reading his well-researched text. Now, after many years, the book is back in print. I highly recommend it (and its companions Colonial Craftsmen and Frontier Living) to anyone interested in how people lived -- and how different types of work was done -- in 17th and 18th century America.