The Domestic Revolution: How the Introduction of Coal Into Victorian Homes Changed Everything

By Ruth Goodman

Book Overview

No single invention epitomizes the Victorian era more than the black cast-iron range. Aware that the twenty-first-century has reduced it to a quaint relic, Ruth Goodman was determined to prove that the hot coal stove provided so much more than morning tea: it might even have kick-started the Industrial Revolution. Wielding the wit and passion seen in How to Be a Victorian, Goodman traces the tectonic shift from wood to coal in the mid-sixteenth century--from sooty trials and errors during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I to the totally smog-clouded reign of Queen Victoria. A pattern of innovation emerges as the women stoking these fires also stoked new global industries: from better soap to clean smudges to new ingredients for cooking. Laced with uproarious anecdotes of Goodman's own experience managing a coal-fired household, this fascinating book shines a hot light on the power of domestic necessity.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1631497634
• ISBN13: 9781631497636
• Release Date: October 2020
• Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"