The Invention Of Comfort

The Invention Of Comfort Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of The Invention Of Comfort book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.

The Invention of Comfort

John E. Crowley
The Invention of Comfort Book PDF

Author : John E. Crowley
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 569 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2003-05-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780801875168

Get Book

The Invention of Comfort by John E. Crowley Pdf

A history and analysis of the development of domestic design in early modern Britain and America. How did our modern ideas of physical well-being originate? As John Crowley demonstrates in The Invention of Comfort, changes in sensible technology owed a great deal to fashion-conscious elites discovering discomfort in surroundings they earlier had felt to be satisfactory. Written in an engaging style that will appeal to historians and material culture specialists as well as to general readers, this pathbreaking work brings together such disparate topics of analysis as climate, fire, food, clothing, the senses, and anxiety—especially about the night. “Riveting. . . . A solid contribution to the literature on the cultural impact of gentility, refinement, and the “baubles of Britain” in England and its colonial possessions.” —Journal of American History “Crowley provides a masterly search and survey that no historian of material culture should miss, and every curious reader should consider.” —Eugen Weber, Phi Beta Kappa Key Reporter “A comprehensive and tight study . . . a valuable contribution to the field, [and] one that is enjoyable to read.” —Emma Hart, English Historical Review “The sheer range of evidence, the interweaving of themes, and the overall strength of the argument mean [this] is an ideal book for specialists and students alike.” —Helen Clifford, Journal of Design History “The Invention of Comfort is an important and thought-provoking book that challenges our understanding of why people live that way they do.” —Marie Morgan, New England Quarterly

The Invention of Improvement

Paul Slack
The Invention of Improvement Book PDF

Author : Paul Slack
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 334 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2015
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780199645916

Get Book

The Invention of Improvement by Paul Slack Pdf

The idea of improvement - gradual and cumulative betterment - was something new in 17th century England. It became commonplace to assert that improvements in agriculture, industry, commerce, and social welfare would bring infinite prosperity and happiness. The word improvement was itself new, and since it had no equivalent in other languages, it gave the English a distinctive culture of improvement which they took with them to Ireland, Scotland, and America. Slack explains the political, intellectual, and economic circumstances which allowed notions of improvement to take root.

The Age of Comfort

Joan DeJean
The Age of Comfort Book PDF

Author : Joan DeJean
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2009-07-01
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9781608191352

Get Book

The Age of Comfort by Joan DeJean Pdf

Today, it is difficult to imagine a living room without a sofa. When the first sofas on record were delivered in seventeenth-century France, the result was a radical reinvention of interior space. Symptomatic of a new age of casualness and comfort, the sofa ushered in an era known as the golden age of conversation; as the first piece of furniture designed for two, it was also considered an invitation to seduction. With the sofa came many other changes in interior space we now take for granted: private bedrooms, bathrooms, and the original living rooms. None of this could have happened without a colorful cast of visionaries-legendary architects, the first interior designers, and the women who shaped the tastes of two successive kings of France: Louis XIV's mistress Madame de Maintenon and Louis XV's mistress Madame de Pompadour. Their revolutionary ideas would have a direct influence on realms outside the home, from clothing to literature and gender relations, changing the way people lived and related to one another for the foreseeable future.

Sensing the Past

Mark Michael Smith
Sensing the Past Book PDF

Author : Mark Michael Smith
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 198 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : History
ISBN : 0520254953

Get Book

Sensing the Past by Mark Michael Smith Pdf

"Smith's history of the sensate is destined to precipitate a revolution in our understanding of the sensibilities that underpinned the mentalities of past epochs."--David Howes, author of Sensual Relations: Engaging the Senses in Culture and Social Theory "Mark M. Smith presents a far-ranging essay on the history of the senses that serves simultaneously as a good introduction to the historiography. If one feels in danger of sensory overload from this growing body of scholarship, Smith's piece is a useful preventive."--Leigh E. Schmidt, author of Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality "This is a masterful overview. The history of the senses has been a frontier field for a while now. Mark Smith draws together what we know, with an impressive sensory range, and encourages further work. A really exciting survey."--Peter N. Stearns, author of American Fear: The Causes and Consequences of High Anxiety "Who would ever have guessed that a book on the history of the senses--seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling--could be informative, thought-provoking, and, at the same time, most entertaining? Ranging in both time and locale, Mark Smith's Sensing the Past makes even the philosophy about the senses from ancient times to now both learned and exciting. This work will draw scholars into under-recognized subjects and lay readers into a world we simply but unwisely take for granted."--Bertram Wyatt-Brown, author of Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South "Mark M. Smith has a good record of communicating his research to a broad constituency within and beyond the academy . . . This will be required reading for anyone addressing sensory history."--Penelope Gouk, author of Music, Science and Natural Magic in Seventeenth Century England "This is a fine cultural history of the body, which takes Western and Eastern traditions and their texts quite seriously. Smith views a history of the senses not only from 'below' but places it squarely in the historical imagination. It will be of interest to a wide range of readers."--Sander L. Gilman, author of Difference and Pathology

The Invention of Solitude

Paul Auster
The Invention of Solitude Book PDF

Author : Paul Auster
Publisher : Faber & Faber
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2010-11-25
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780571266746

Get Book

The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster Pdf

'One day there is life . . . and then, suddenly, it happens there is death.' So begins Paul Auster's moving and personal meditation on fatherhood. The first section, 'Portrait of an Invisible Man', reveals Auster's memories and feelings after the death of his father. In 'The Book of Memory' the perspective shifts to Auster's role as a father. The narrator, 'A', contemplates his separation from his son, his dying grandfather and the solitary nature of writing and story-telling.

After Cooling

Eric Dean Wilson
After Cooling Book PDF

Author : Eric Dean Wilson
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2022-07-19
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781982111311

Get Book

After Cooling by Eric Dean Wilson Pdf

This “ambitious [and] delightful” (The New York Times) work of literary nonfiction interweaves the science and history of the powerful refrigerant (and dangerous greenhouse gas) Freon with a haunting meditation on how to live meaningfully and morally in a rapidly heating world. In After Cooling, Eric Dean Wilson braids together air-conditioning history, climate science, road trips, and philosophy to tell the story of the birth, life, and afterlife of Freon, the refrigerant that ripped a hole larger than the continental United States in the ozone layer. As he traces the refrigerant’s life span from its invention in the 1920s—when it was hailed as a miracle of scientific progress—to efforts in the 1980s to ban the chemical (and the resulting political backlash), Wilson finds himself on a journey through the American heartland, trailing a man who buys up old tanks of Freon stockpiled in attics and basements to destroy what remains of the chemical before it can do further harm. Wilson is at heart an essayist, looking far and wide to tease out what particular forces in American culture—in capitalism, in systemic racism, in our values—combined to lead us into the Freon crisis and then out. “Meticulously researched and engagingly written” (Amitav Ghosh), this “knockout debut” (New York Journal of Books) offers a rare glimpse of environmental hope, suggesting that maybe the vast and terrifying problem of global warming is not beyond our grasp to face.

Design

Jessica Helfand
Design Book PDF

Author : Jessica Helfand
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 228 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2016-01-01
Category : Design
ISBN : 9780300205091

Get Book

Design by Jessica Helfand Pdf

A compelling defense for the importance of design and how it shapes our behavior, our emotions, and our lives Design has always prided itself on being relevant to the world it serves, but interest in design was once limited to a small community of design professionals. Today, books on "design thinking" are best sellers, and computer and Web-based tools have expanded the definition of who practices design. Looking at objects, letterforms, experiences, and even theatrical performances, award-winning author Jessica Helfand asserts that understanding design's purpose is more crucial than ever. Design is meaningful not because it is pretty but because it is an intrinsically humanist discipline, tethered to the very core of why we exist. For example, as designers collaborate with developing nations on everything from more affordable lawn mowers to cleaner drinking water, they must take into consideration the full range of a given community's complex social needs. Advancing a conversation that is unfolding around the globe, Helfand offers an eye-opening look at how designed things make us feel as well as how--and why--they motivate our behavior.

At Home in Postwar France

Nicole C. Rudolph
At Home in Postwar France Book PDF

Author : Nicole C. Rudolph
Publisher : Berghahn Books
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2015-03-01
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9781782385882

Get Book

At Home in Postwar France by Nicole C. Rudolph Pdf

After World War II, France embarked on a project of modernization, which included the development of the modern mass home. At Home in Postwar France examines key groups of actors — state officials, architects, sociologists and tastemakers — arguing that modernizers looked to the home as a site for social engineering and nation-building; designers and advocates of the modern home contributed to the democratization of French society; and the French home of the Trente Glorieuses, as it was built and inhabited, was a hybrid product of architects’, planners’, and residents’ understandings of modernity. This volume identifies the “right to comfort” as an invention of the postwar period and suggests that the modern mass home played a vital role in shaping new expectations for well-being and happiness.

The Contagious City

Simon Finger
The Contagious City Book PDF

Author : Simon Finger
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 243 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2012-05-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9780801464478

Get Book

The Contagious City by Simon Finger Pdf

By the time William Penn was planning the colony that would come to be called Pennsylvania, with Philadelphia at its heart, Europeans on both sides of the ocean had long experience with the hazards of city life, disease the most terrifying among them. Drawing from those experiences, colonists hoped to create new urban forms that combined the commercial advantages of a seaport with the health benefits of the country. The Contagious City details how early Americans struggled to preserve their collective health against both the strange new perils of the colonial environment and the familiar dangers of the traditional city, through a period of profound transformation in both politics and medicine. Philadelphia was the paramount example of this reforming tendency. Tracing the city’s history from its founding on the banks of the Delaware River in 1682 to the yellow fever outbreak of 1793, Simon Finger emphasizes the importance of public health and population control in decisions made by the city’s planners and leaders. He also shows that key figures in the city’s history, including Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush, brought their keen interest in science and medicine into the political sphere. Throughout his account, Finger makes clear that medicine and politics were inextricably linked, and that both undergirded the debates over such crucial concerns as the city’s location, its urban plan, its immigration policy, and its creation of institutions of public safety. In framing the history of Philadelphia through the imperatives of public health, The Contagious City offers a bold new vision of the urban history of colonial America.

Happiness in World History

Peter N. Stearns
Happiness in World History Book PDF

Author : Peter N. Stearns
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 227 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2020-12-29
Category : History
ISBN : 9781000329810

Get Book

Happiness in World History by Peter N. Stearns Pdf

Happiness in World History traces ideas and experiences of happiness from early stages in human history, to the maturation of agricultural societies and their religious and philosophical systems, to the changes and diversities in the approach to happiness in the modern societies that began to emerge in the 18th century. In this thorough overview, Peter N. Stearns explores the interaction between psychological and historical findings about happiness, the relationship between ideas and popular experience, and the opportunity to use historical analysis to assess strengths and weaknesses of dominant contemporary notions of happiness. Starting with the advent of agriculture, the book assesses major transitions in history for patterns in happiness, including the impact of the great religions, the unprecedented Enlightenment interest in secular happiness and cheerfulness, and industrialization and imperialism. The final, contemporary section covers fascist and communist efforts to define alternatives to Western ideas of happiness, the increasing connections with consumerism, and growing global interests in defining and promoting well-being. Touching on the experiences in the major regions of Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and North America, the text offers an expansive introduction to a new field of study. This book will be of interest to students of world history and the history of emotions.

Sleep in Early Modern England

Sasha Handley
Sleep in Early Modern England Book PDF

Author : Sasha Handley
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 293 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2016-09-27
Category : History
ISBN : 9780300220391

Get Book

Sleep in Early Modern England by Sasha Handley Pdf

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX

Semantics and Cultural Change in the British Enlightenment: New Words and Old

Carey McIntosh
Semantics and Cultural Change in the British Enlightenment New Words and Old Book PDF

Author : Carey McIntosh
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 230 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2020-05-18
Category : History
ISBN : 9789004430631

Get Book

Semantics and Cultural Change in the British Enlightenment: New Words and Old by Carey McIntosh Pdf

A study of English semantics during the Enlightenment. New words 1650–1800 reflect the new middle-class culture of sociability, commerce, and science. Old mostly obsolete words illuminate the realities of working-class life, exhausting labor, dirt, outrageous sexism, magic, horses, bizarre food.

White Savage

Fintan O'Toole
White Savage Book PDF

Author : Fintan O'Toole
Publisher : Faber & Faber
Page : 355 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2015-02-12
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780571319411

Get Book

White Savage by Fintan O'Toole Pdf

A dramatic, exciting and tragic book about the Irish fur trapper who held the fate of America and the British Empire in his hands. William Johnson began life as a poor Irish Catholic peasant. After converting to Protestantism, he emigrated to America where he became the leading fur trader in the British colony and one of its richest men. He also 'went native', marrying an Indian woman and adopting the religion of her tribe, the Iroquois. When war broke out between the French and English, Johnson held the fate of the British Empire in his hands. If the Indians fought with the French, the British were doomed. A fascinating historical biography of this adventurous man, whose reinvention in the New World made him the first modern American.

Revisiting The Polite and Commercial People

Elaine Chalus,Perry Gauci
Revisiting The Polite and Commercial People Book PDF

Author : Elaine Chalus,Perry Gauci
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2019-01-31
Category : History
ISBN : 9780192523648

Get Book

Revisiting The Polite and Commercial People by Elaine Chalus,Perry Gauci Pdf

For some time before his death in July 2015, former colleagues and students of Paul Langford had discussed the possibility of organising a festschrift to celebrate his remarkable contribution to eighteenth-century history. It was planned for 2019 to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the appearance of his seminal A Polite and Commercial People, the opening volume in the New Oxford History of England series, Paul's best-known and most influential publication. He was delighted to hear of these plans and the tragic news of his death only made the contributors more determined to see the project through to completion. The importance of A Polite and Commercial People within its own time is unquestionable. Not only did it provide a powerful new vision of eighteenth-century Britain, but it also played a vital part in reviving interest in, and expanding ways of thinking about, Georgian history. As the thirteen contributors to this volume amply testify, any review of the field from the 1980s onwards cannot ignore the profound effect Paul's research had on the social and political publications in his field. This collection of essays combines reflection on the impact of Paul's work with further engagement with the central questions he posed. In particular, it serves to re-connect various recent avenues of Georgian studies, bringing together diverse themes present in Paul's scholarship, but which are often studied independently of each other. As such, it aims to provide a fitting tribute to Paul's work and impact, and a wider reassessment of the current direction of eighteenth-century studies.

Joyce and the Invention of Irish History

Thomas C. Hofheinz
Joyce and the Invention of Irish History Book PDF

Author : Thomas C. Hofheinz
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 225 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 1995-05-25
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 0521471141

Get Book

Joyce and the Invention of Irish History by Thomas C. Hofheinz Pdf

This book examines Joyce's use of historical sources to illuminate prevalent problems central to modern Irish identity.