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Everyday Life in America
The Reshaping of Everyday Life, 1790–1840: 1790-1840
"Compact and insightful. "--New York Times Book Review "Jack Larkin has retrieved the irretrievable; the intimate facts of everyday life that defined what people were really like."--American Heritage
414 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 1988
79 people are currently reading
376 people want to read
About the author
Jack Larkin
33 books3 followersJohn W. "Jack" Larkin was the longtime chief historian at the outdoor history museum Old Sturbridge Village and an affiliate professor of history at Clark University from 2004 until his death.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
September 17, 2023
Americans spend a lot of time today arguing over the ideas, intentions, and goals of the generation who founded the republic. What most of them give little thought to, however, is to what everyday life was like for the men and women who lived in that era. Yet the details of their daily existence were of far greater importance to them than the ideologies subsequent generations spent so much time considering, and in several ways more important in shaping their outlook. In this book, Jack Larkin draws upon a host of details to define the parameters of these lives, ones which, while very different from those that determine how we live today, exerted a considerable influence in shaping the patterns of life for the generations that followed.
Larkin deploys these details in a series of topical chapters that examine everyday life in the United States from the late 18th to the mid-19th centuries. On the surface, the lives these people experienced differed enormously from the ones with which we are familiar in the present. As he illustrates, theirs was a much rougher way of living, with less security, less variety, and less comfort than with what we are now accustomed. Yet in a variety of ways, Larkin divines from these differences the emergence of a new way of living that reshaped their existence. Driving this were advances in tools and other technologies, shifts in social mores that established new standards for behavior, and a greater availability of home furnishings and consumer items for many Americans. While he notes that these changes were unevenly spread geographically, they reflected the direction in which the lives of ordinary Americans were evolving, reflecting a more sophisticated and “civilized” life than the one enjoyed by their predecessors in colonial times.
In describing everything from daily work to homes, clothing, transportation, and recreation, Larkin demonstrates a confident command of a multitude of tiny details. His evident mastery of his subject adds to the assuredness of his conclusions, and helps to meld these mundane facts into an interesting and informative portrait of the era. Though the lack of notes identifying the sources for his many quotations can be a little annoying, his book is nevertheless a valuable resource for anyone who wants to understand the lives Americans lived in the early republic, and how the patterns of their existence proved as influential to us today as their more famous accomplishments.
Larkin deploys these details in a series of topical chapters that examine everyday life in the United States from the late 18th to the mid-19th centuries. On the surface, the lives these people experienced differed enormously from the ones with which we are familiar in the present. As he illustrates, theirs was a much rougher way of living, with less security, less variety, and less comfort than with what we are now accustomed. Yet in a variety of ways, Larkin divines from these differences the emergence of a new way of living that reshaped their existence. Driving this were advances in tools and other technologies, shifts in social mores that established new standards for behavior, and a greater availability of home furnishings and consumer items for many Americans. While he notes that these changes were unevenly spread geographically, they reflected the direction in which the lives of ordinary Americans were evolving, reflecting a more sophisticated and “civilized” life than the one enjoyed by their predecessors in colonial times.
In describing everything from daily work to homes, clothing, transportation, and recreation, Larkin demonstrates a confident command of a multitude of tiny details. His evident mastery of his subject adds to the assuredness of his conclusions, and helps to meld these mundane facts into an interesting and informative portrait of the era. Though the lack of notes identifying the sources for his many quotations can be a little annoying, his book is nevertheless a valuable resource for anyone who wants to understand the lives Americans lived in the early republic, and how the patterns of their existence proved as influential to us today as their more famous accomplishments.
January 19, 2014
Jack Larkin does a wonderful job examining early American daily life, with an emphasis on the changes that occurred from 1790 to 1840. While it might be more obvious for some in our day to point to the changes in the last century, there was a sizable shift in culture as America came into the Victorian era. As Larkin points out, not everyone experienced these changes equally, yet in time they would reshape just about everything.
These changes were not uniformly good or bad. To generalize, the older culture was virtually a unique American version of historic Western culture, not all that far removed from medieval Europe at times. It was largely communal, familial, agrarian, crude, and violent. The newer culture was increasingly restrained, refined, private, industrial, comfortable, and sentimental. To understand where we got today, we must learn how we got here, and broad generalizations and simplifications don't really give us all we need. I think this book contributes much towards our understanding of how these complex changes came about.
It seems to me, and the author points to this several times, that the revivals (i.e. the Second Great Awakening) had much to do with these changes, whether they were for better or worse. The benefits of these evangelical movements are perhaps more obvious (e.g. increase in church attendance, decrease in drunkenness), but what I perceive to be the detrimental effects that followed them include their tendency to individualism, a narrow perspective of the Christian life, and a view of decency and morality that was often divorced from God's law and the Old Testament.
In short, I enjoyed the book, and it gave me a better idea of early American life. This was especially helpful for me because I work at a historical site that focuses on the period covered in this book. This book is really close to getting five stars.
These changes were not uniformly good or bad. To generalize, the older culture was virtually a unique American version of historic Western culture, not all that far removed from medieval Europe at times. It was largely communal, familial, agrarian, crude, and violent. The newer culture was increasingly restrained, refined, private, industrial, comfortable, and sentimental. To understand where we got today, we must learn how we got here, and broad generalizations and simplifications don't really give us all we need. I think this book contributes much towards our understanding of how these complex changes came about.
It seems to me, and the author points to this several times, that the revivals (i.e. the Second Great Awakening) had much to do with these changes, whether they were for better or worse. The benefits of these evangelical movements are perhaps more obvious (e.g. increase in church attendance, decrease in drunkenness), but what I perceive to be the detrimental effects that followed them include their tendency to individualism, a narrow perspective of the Christian life, and a view of decency and morality that was often divorced from God's law and the Old Testament.
In short, I enjoyed the book, and it gave me a better idea of early American life. This was especially helpful for me because I work at a historical site that focuses on the period covered in this book. This book is really close to getting five stars.
October 14, 2024
This is the second of the independently-written, six volume “Everyday Life in America” series that spans the time from early colonization through to the middle of the twentieth century. This one’s a fascinating 50-year read, chocked full of facts and anecdotes gleaned from official records, newspapers, and private letters and journals.
The period from when Washington took office until Texas gained its independence is often covered in history books by reciting political and military facts - stuff like the Jefferson Purchase of the Louisiana Territory and the Lewis and Clark Expedition or the War of 1812 or The Alamo. But what gets forgotten is how small and dark the people’s houses were, how bad things smelled everywhere, and how long it took to travel from Boston to Philadelphia in a bouncing stage coach.
This book touches on all such mundane matters and much more, and brings alive all the social problems of the day as well - including rampant alcoholism, public hangings, dueling, and flogging slaves and misbehaving school children. But it also describes starry nights and barn-raisings and camp meetings and how genteel families began investing in pianos in the parlor for their unmarried daughters to play and sing at in order to lure innocent young swains.
It’s all good stuff and I’m eagerly diving into the next volume so I can trace how far we’ve come before arriving at Facebook and texting.
The period from when Washington took office until Texas gained its independence is often covered in history books by reciting political and military facts - stuff like the Jefferson Purchase of the Louisiana Territory and the Lewis and Clark Expedition or the War of 1812 or The Alamo. But what gets forgotten is how small and dark the people’s houses were, how bad things smelled everywhere, and how long it took to travel from Boston to Philadelphia in a bouncing stage coach.
This book touches on all such mundane matters and much more, and brings alive all the social problems of the day as well - including rampant alcoholism, public hangings, dueling, and flogging slaves and misbehaving school children. But it also describes starry nights and barn-raisings and camp meetings and how genteel families began investing in pianos in the parlor for their unmarried daughters to play and sing at in order to lure innocent young swains.
It’s all good stuff and I’m eagerly diving into the next volume so I can trace how far we’ve come before arriving at Facebook and texting.
April 4, 2024
Ever wanted to know what America’s early republic was like for the people who lived through it? Read this book. Larkin spares no detail about the private and public lives of Americans living through this time period. This was an America that should make many of us realize what we take for granted in the 21st century. This was a world still lit by hearths and candles, where the fragility of life loomed heavy over every family. This was also a world that was rapidly changing, which created anxiety and for some a longing for the ways of the past. Larkin tries to create as balanced an account as possible, detailing life for men and women, north and south, slave and free. No talk here of the “great men” of the era.
May 2, 2023
Very helpful in understanding the culture. Regency era in England cannot be compared to the culture in the US at the time.
August 29, 2023
Very, very well done. Granular. Also contains ample bibliography.
Read
June 18, 2025Read it for my American History Class with Jeff Bremmer...learned a lot!
October 16, 2020
This popular history rates well and does just what the title implies – it chronicles the changes that affected everyday life in the early 1800's. I now have a much clearer picture of many aspects of ordinary life in America.
What invention was most important, besides ready-spun cloth? We would never think of it now, but it was the cookstove. That device made such a profound improvement in daily life that people then talked about it most. But throughout the book, the technical improvements in everyday living roll on – argand lamps, bath tubs, iron work tools, pianos, gas light, frame houses, front yards for houses, steam boats – and on and on, adding up to an optimistic portrayal of a developing society.
Personal habits, too, get noted. As seen by people then, rural New Englanders walked with a weighty slouch, New York City residents had begun to take on a knitted brow and compressed lips, the Irish were attracting attention by their gesticulations, back country North Carolinians by a fierce or wild facial expression. None of these early manners are the same today, but it’s interesting that differences were already noticeable. Taverns, the center of town life in 1790, moved to the margins of society by 1840. So did the ubiquitous habit of spitting tobacco juice laterally, all over the floors of shops, churches and porches. Who says we Americans can’t learn manners?
A small peeve: the picture section shows illustrations that are too small and have too much detail for the eye to make out. The book helps readers distinguish between the advances of this era and those later in the 19th century with which we’re more familiar. We get a little history, a lot of technology, and always a voyeuristic satisfaction that comes only when people in one generation get to peek in closely on another.
What invention was most important, besides ready-spun cloth? We would never think of it now, but it was the cookstove. That device made such a profound improvement in daily life that people then talked about it most. But throughout the book, the technical improvements in everyday living roll on – argand lamps, bath tubs, iron work tools, pianos, gas light, frame houses, front yards for houses, steam boats – and on and on, adding up to an optimistic portrayal of a developing society.
Personal habits, too, get noted. As seen by people then, rural New Englanders walked with a weighty slouch, New York City residents had begun to take on a knitted brow and compressed lips, the Irish were attracting attention by their gesticulations, back country North Carolinians by a fierce or wild facial expression. None of these early manners are the same today, but it’s interesting that differences were already noticeable. Taverns, the center of town life in 1790, moved to the margins of society by 1840. So did the ubiquitous habit of spitting tobacco juice laterally, all over the floors of shops, churches and porches. Who says we Americans can’t learn manners?
A small peeve: the picture section shows illustrations that are too small and have too much detail for the eye to make out. The book helps readers distinguish between the advances of this era and those later in the 19th century with which we’re more familiar. We get a little history, a lot of technology, and always a voyeuristic satisfaction that comes only when people in one generation get to peek in closely on another.
March 13, 2014
One of the handiest, most useful books in my library. I find myself going back to it again and again for information about the texture of early 19th century American life. I'm especially fond of its wide-ranging bibliography.
January 31, 2019
Very good book. Frankly, you can pick this book up and read any chapter you like, depending on your area of interest (work-life, housing, travel, music, etc). I found this book to be very interesting and well-written.
July 3, 2012
If you love American history, and want answers to how people lived and survived when our country was young - this is it. Great read during a cold winter!
July 17, 2020
"'The life of every community,' wrote Francis Underwood, ninteenth-century America's profoundest student of everyday life, 'is made up of infinite details.'" (xiii)
"The rhythms and limits of American life changed gradually and unevenly. All Americans continued to confront the intractable limits of life set by death and disease, although many had begun to struggle vigorously against them. For most, the seasonal clock still shaped patterns of fertility and the timing of marriage. In the midst of rapid population growth some Americans began to take decisive action to limit the size of their families. Some chose to reshape their traditional ways of dealing with the occasions of marriage, birth or death. They shifted from communal habits to ways of 'little publicity,' moving momentous but intimate occasions into an increasingly private world." (104)
"Probably nothing could express the inequality of Americans' living conditions more starkly: the poor struggled to see by firelight, while the wealth could now keep their entire houses ablaze throughout the evening." (143)
"Americans responded to this barrage of persuasion by dramatically decreasing their consumption of alcohol. By 1840 it had declined by more than two-thirds for the nation as a whole, from close to four gallons per person each year to less than one and a half." (296)
"[T]he American who were conscious of living through a sweeping reformation of social ways also saw them as an 'advance in civilization,' with uncouth and sometimes violent practices giving way to bonds of self-consciousness and discipline. Sewing circles, stricter Sabbaths and more churches, the decline of bear-baiting and horse races, and above all temperance, had partially tamed a people who had once been, a Connecticut local historian had once observed, 'rougher in their ways, more profane, more violent in speech.' ... Miriam Green had grown up in rural New Hampshire ad then gone to work in the Lowell mills. In the early 1840s she was penning reminiscent sketches of her girlhood in an attempt to recapture 'the spirit of agrarianism and hilarity.' For much of America it was passing away even as she wrote." (303)
"The rhythms and limits of American life changed gradually and unevenly. All Americans continued to confront the intractable limits of life set by death and disease, although many had begun to struggle vigorously against them. For most, the seasonal clock still shaped patterns of fertility and the timing of marriage. In the midst of rapid population growth some Americans began to take decisive action to limit the size of their families. Some chose to reshape their traditional ways of dealing with the occasions of marriage, birth or death. They shifted from communal habits to ways of 'little publicity,' moving momentous but intimate occasions into an increasingly private world." (104)
"Probably nothing could express the inequality of Americans' living conditions more starkly: the poor struggled to see by firelight, while the wealth could now keep their entire houses ablaze throughout the evening." (143)
"Americans responded to this barrage of persuasion by dramatically decreasing their consumption of alcohol. By 1840 it had declined by more than two-thirds for the nation as a whole, from close to four gallons per person each year to less than one and a half." (296)
"[T]he American who were conscious of living through a sweeping reformation of social ways also saw them as an 'advance in civilization,' with uncouth and sometimes violent practices giving way to bonds of self-consciousness and discipline. Sewing circles, stricter Sabbaths and more churches, the decline of bear-baiting and horse races, and above all temperance, had partially tamed a people who had once been, a Connecticut local historian had once observed, 'rougher in their ways, more profane, more violent in speech.' ... Miriam Green had grown up in rural New Hampshire ad then gone to work in the Lowell mills. In the early 1840s she was penning reminiscent sketches of her girlhood in an attempt to recapture 'the spirit of agrarianism and hilarity.' For much of America it was passing away even as she wrote." (303)
June 26, 2024
A very readable and detailed book about life on the individual level for Americans after the Revolutionary War. The book looks at a wide variety of topics such as work life, home life, social life and personal habits, to name but a few. Using examples taken from journals and diaries, the reader is left with a distinct impression of the good, the bad and the ugly, as well as the variability and changeability of life through the early part of the 19th century.
November 7, 2024
I had to read this for my US history class, but honestly, I loved it! It did a great job of showing what life was like before and after all the social changes of the era.
It also focused on all types of people - rich, poor, enslaved people, people in the North, people in the South, etc.
I may be bias to a fault (I’m a history major who’s favorite area of history is US history around this era) but I found it to be quite interesting and enjoyable!
It also focused on all types of people - rich, poor, enslaved people, people in the North, people in the South, etc.
I may be bias to a fault (I’m a history major who’s favorite area of history is US history around this era) but I found it to be quite interesting and enjoyable!
December 25, 2025
Great book, provides a ton of details if you plan to write in this setting, but overly-sympathetic commentary on black customs was tiring. Everything is simply a noble African tradition that us silly Anglo-Americans couldn't understand. Their English wasn't bad, it was just different! Their habits, mannerisms, and living conditions weren't primitive, they just had an "incomprehensible alien grace".
May 5, 2019
The ever changing customs, mores and habits of the American people. This book detailed description of the lives of our ancestors through the years, decades and centuries. I will return to it again.
July 25, 2018
Excellent
A very well written and comprehensive social history of great
Use to writers. I strongly recommend this book to all those interested in this era.
A very well written and comprehensive social history of great
Use to writers. I strongly recommend this book to all those interested in this era.
April 27, 2019
Fascinating from start to finish!
January 23, 2020
I LIKE THIS BOOK.
January 4, 2021
This book provides an extremely in-depth view of the history of America between 1790 and 1840. If you read "in small things forgotten" and found it wanting in detail, this will add those details.
Read
December 2, 2025Great history of the average American during a time of great change.
September 27, 2018
The Reshaping of Everyday Life will help you to understand why you’re in love with penicillin, your Toyota, the salad bar, and forced air heat.
“The good old days” is a familiar concept, but, frankly, in just about any context you can think of, it doesn’t make any sense. Most folks in the past lived tougher, more dangerous, and less amusing lives than most folks enjoy today.
Jack Larkin has assembled 349 pages of minutely interesting documentation that probably tells more than you thought you wanted to know about how rich, poor, and ordinary people lived in steadily expanding America during 1790-1840.
Read the book for details. For my taste, Larkin’s section on “Houses and the Domestic Environment” is the most illuminating offering in The Reshaping of Everyday Life. One main point is that domestic life in the early 19th century was dark for most people—many houses had few windows, and candles were an expensive luxury for many folks. The idyllic image of families gathered around the fireplace hearth to cook and keep warm was a crowded reality for many families, and it was cold on the other side of the room.
The reader starkly infers that ordinary farmers and other ordinary folks didn’t complain much in the early 19th century. There is much to learn from their gritty commitment to getting on with life.
Awareness and understanding of history as it was experienced allows us to create and sustain a mindful context for our past and present adventures.
Read more of my book reviews and poems here:
www.richardsubber.com
“The good old days” is a familiar concept, but, frankly, in just about any context you can think of, it doesn’t make any sense. Most folks in the past lived tougher, more dangerous, and less amusing lives than most folks enjoy today.
Jack Larkin has assembled 349 pages of minutely interesting documentation that probably tells more than you thought you wanted to know about how rich, poor, and ordinary people lived in steadily expanding America during 1790-1840.
Read the book for details. For my taste, Larkin’s section on “Houses and the Domestic Environment” is the most illuminating offering in The Reshaping of Everyday Life. One main point is that domestic life in the early 19th century was dark for most people—many houses had few windows, and candles were an expensive luxury for many folks. The idyllic image of families gathered around the fireplace hearth to cook and keep warm was a crowded reality for many families, and it was cold on the other side of the room.
The reader starkly infers that ordinary farmers and other ordinary folks didn’t complain much in the early 19th century. There is much to learn from their gritty commitment to getting on with life.
Awareness and understanding of history as it was experienced allows us to create and sustain a mindful context for our past and present adventures.
Read more of my book reviews and poems here:
www.richardsubber.com
February 11, 2009
The author quotes diaries, letters, and reports written at the time to help describe how people lived in the years after America gained its independence. He also quotes statistics (on number of children, etc.) and archaeological studies. It's amazing how much changed in just fifty years.
I'll warn you that this book is a bit dense (like a textbook), but I never found it boring or difficult to read. If you're researching the time period or are a serious history lover, I'd recommend this book.
I'll warn you that this book is a bit dense (like a textbook), but I never found it boring or difficult to read. If you're researching the time period or are a serious history lover, I'd recommend this book.
April 13, 2013
An interesting and easy to read popular history. I cannot lie: I read it for an undergraduate course and it served its purpose. It gives a nice overview of changes of everyday life and the effects of technology. Excerpts could be taken for a high school course for inquiry and small shock value for students.
May 4, 2013
Regardless of what others might think, I think of myself as the proverbial "common man." This is about this group's history during what I find the most interesting period of American history. Reshaping from the anxiety of the brand New Republic to the full-bodied power of Antebellum American ready to nearly tear itself apart with its strength.
April 10, 2016
Awesome book for historians looking to learn how ordinary folks lived. It covers things most authors of history don't : everyday life in America. Everything from how Americans walked, ate, sang, their sex lives, and customs are covered. Great resource for any historian, especially those doing living history.
March 3, 2008
It's not narrative history, so you can't approach it that way, but detail after detail builds up real sense of the time. It's fascinating stuff.
October 25, 2008
A readable, well documented study of the ways in which life changed for Americans as they built the new republic.
August 7, 2011
Very good. Answers questions about histories mysteries.....
May 27, 2014
Very, very interesting discussion of everyday life in the early 1800s. Fascinating period of change in American history and life.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews