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The Reshaping of Everyday Life: 1790-1840
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The Reshaping of Everyday Life: 1790-1840
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The Reshaping of Everyday Life: 1790-1840
Ebook449 pages6 hours

The Reshaping of Everyday Life: 1790-1840

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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About this ebook

"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
LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateSep 7, 2010
ISBN9780062016805
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The Reshaping of Everyday Life: 1790-1840

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Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    if you take the modern world for granted, this book will show how America changed from primitive survival to middle class
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A very quick overview of material culture in the early republic. Would be fine for undergrads or people who don't need to know a lot of detail. Sources were still very elite, despite the promise to focus on regular people and their world. A few errors I noticed in my areas of interest suggest the research wasn't incredibly thorough. Uncritically "channels" most of the prevailing historiography (some of which I happen to disagree with).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Using a topical approach, Jack Larkin's The Reshaping of Everyday Life provides an excellent social history of the "infinite details" of the early republic from 1790 to 1840. In his book, Larkin maintains that the period between the presidency of George Washington and the presidency of William Henry Harrison was a time of great change in the American way of life. During this time there existed an evolution and Larkin presents how some Americans began to adopt new ways of doing things that separated them from the customs of their forefathers. Larkin also argues that such a study can prove to be a cure for the "good old days" mentality that modern Americans and historians continue to facilitate. As chief historian at Old Sturbridge Village, Larkin is able to provide a very detailed description of early American social history.Throughout the book, chapters move from population to economy, to the domestic environment and housing, to personal habits, to transportation, to music, and social gatherings. While many Americans yearn for a simpler time, Larkin reveals how by 1840 the social atmosphere then evolved to one of a more somber and impersonal nature. In the chapter describing personal habits, Larkin touches on regions and variations in customs, hygiene, use of tobacco, food, dress, attitudes, and sexual practices. For example, when compared to previous generation, Larkin demonstrates how basic demographic events, such as birth and death, which once involved the community, became more privatized. Most families of varying classes "experienced death at home" while society encouraged neighbors to visit the house of the deceased to "participate together in rituals in rituals of mourning." I especially enjoyed Larkin's addressing of marriages during this time, both those of whites and slaves. The practice of "jumping the broomstick" and the trend of weddings being hosted most often during the fall or on Thanksgiving. It is seemingly minor cultural practices such as these that the author uses to teach the reader the importance of studying the "small things."Throughout his work, Larkin successfully manages to examine the lives of all American classes, social conditions, and geographical regions without straying from the traditional narrative approach or lacking in detail. Although I am a history major, I appreciated that the author did not clutter this work with numerous stats, charts and graphs, which the author proved is not necessary in a study of American social history. Despite not having footnotes, which I prefer, one can see that the book has been extensively researched due to many references to contemporary writers as well as primary sources. The author refers to autobiographies, diaries, and travel accounts of a great variety of people. For example, he utilizes primary documents such as the 1798 "nationwide tax assessment" to examine the number of dwelling in America at this time. Also, if anyone were to want to delve deeper into this subject, he offers an extensive bibliography of secondary sources. For anyone who may be searching for a proper introduction into research of the post-Revolution generation, this book is a great choice.