From Fireplace to Cookstove: Technology and the Domestic Ideal in America

by Priscilla J. Brewer

Priscilla J. Brewer examines the development and history of the first American appliance—the cast iron stove—that created a quiet, but culturally contested transformation of domestic life and sparked many important debates about the role of women, industrialization, the definition of social class, and the development of a consumer economy. Brewer explores the shift from fireplaces to stoves for cooking and heating in American homes, and sheds new light on the supposedly "separate spheres" of home and world of nineteenth- century America. She also considers the changing responses to technological development, the emergence of a consumption ethic, and the attempt to define and preserve distinct Anglo-American middle class culture. There are few works that treat this significant subject, and Brewer covers impressive new ground. Extensively documented—based on letters, diaries, probate inventories, census records, sales figures, advertisements, fiction, and advice literature-this book will be valuable to scholars of American history and women's studies.

338 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2000

Reviews

[Corinne · Rating 5 out of 5]

From open hearth cooking and brick ovens to European-style plated stoves to wood & coal cookstoves to gas & electric stoves, Brewer's book comprehensively discusses inventions, innovations, and usage in homes throughout America. The detailed end notes and bibliography allowed me to examine sources and, when I was finished reading, to follow up with additional sources. Particularly interesting was the comparison between English homes in New England and German homes in Pennsylvania and westward. The English hung on to the ideal of the open hearth while the Germans favored the efficient multi-plate stoves they were familiar with in the old country. Brewer explores the pros and cons of the bulky cast iron wood and coal cookstove, and addresses the nostalgia that glossed over their cumbersome attributes when they re-emerged during the energy crisis and back to basics movement of the 1970s. For a comprehensive look at America's kitchens in the 19th and 20th centuries, this book thoroughly covers the bases.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-written, easily accessible and coherent examination of how the transition from fireplaces to cook stoves shaped American life in the 19th century. Brewer examines the practical affects of changing heat and cooking technologies, as well as the ideological influences and responses to technology and altering life-ways. I was particularly surprised by how early the concepts of communal food preparation, take-out, and meal delivery services developed.