| All the Modern Conveniences: American Household Plumbing, 1840-1890 Contributor(s): Ogle, Maureen (Author) |
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ISBN: 0801863708 ISBN-13: 9780801863707 Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press OUR PRICE: $32.30 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2000 Annotation: As any American who has traveled abroad knows, the American home contains more, and more elaborate, plumbing than any other in the world. Indeed, Americans are renowned for their obsession with cleanliness. Although plumbing has occupied a central position in American life since the mid-nineteenth century, little scholarly attention has been paid to its history. Now, in All the Modern Conveniences, Maureen Ogle presents a fascinating study that explores the development of household plumbing in nineteenth-century America. Until 1840, indoor plumbing could be found only in mansions and first-class hotels. Then, in the decade before midcentury, Americans representing a wider range of economic circumstances began to install household plumbing with increasing eagerness. Ogle draws on a wide assortment of contemporary sources--sanitation reports, builders' manuals, fixture catalogues, patent applications, and popular scientific tracts--to show how the demand for plumbing was prompted more by an emerging middle-class culture of convenience, reform, and domestic life than by fears about poor hygiene and inadequate sanitation. She also examines advancements in water-supply and waste-management technology, the architectural considerations these amenities entailed, and the scientific approach to sanitation that began to emerge by century's end. "As part of this well-researched study, Maureen Ogle links cities, politicians, systems, sanitarians, and ideas to produce a compelling account of household plumbing--a taken-for-granted set of devices that allowed Americans to express their individualism and their commitment to 'science.'"--Mark H. Rose, Florida Atlantic University |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Technology & Engineering | Social Aspects - House & Home | Do-it-yourself - Plumbing - Science | History |
| Dewey: 696.109 |
| LCCN: 95044412 |
| Series: Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology |
| Physical Information: 0.74" H x 6.03" W x 9.03" (0.75 lbs) 232 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: As any American who has traveled abroad knows, the American home contains more, and more elaborate, plumbing than any other in the world. Indeed, Americans are renowned for their obsession with cleanliness. Although plumbing has occupied a central position in American life since the mid-nineteenth century, little scholarly attention has been paid to its history. Now, in All the Modern Conveniences, Maureen Ogle presents a fascinating study that explores the development of household plumbing in nineteenth-century America. Until 1840, indoor plumbing could be found only in mansions and first-class hotels. Then, in the decade before midcentury, Americans representing a wider range of economic circumstances began to install household plumbing with increasing eagerness. Ogle draws on a wide assortment of contemporary sources--sanitation reports, builders' manuals, fixture catalogues, patent applications, and popular scientific tracts--to show how the demand for plumbing was prompted more by an emerging middle-class culture of convenience, reform, and domestic life than by fears about poor hygiene and inadequate sanitation. She also examines advancements in water-supply and waste-management technology, the architectural considerations these amenities entailed, and the scientific approach to sanitation that began to emerge by century's end. |
Contributor Bio(s): Ogle, Maureen: - Maureen Ogle is former assistant professor of history at the University of South Alabama. |