Description
Book SynopsisA detailed study of the domestic life of the early modern, non-elite household This book is a detailed study of the domestic life of the early modern, non-elite household, focussing on the Oxfordshire market town of Thame. Going beyond the exploration of the domestic economy and trends in living standards and consumption, it shows how close examination of the material context within which the household operated can provide evidence of its habitual activities, the relationships between its members, and the values that informed both. The book uses a familiar source, the probate inventory, supplemented by other contemporary written and pictorial evidence, to reveal how activities in the household were directly related to the agricultural, mercantile, and socialenvironment. It illustrates the variable and shifting nature of social relationships and shows how the early modern household was part of the wider economic and social narrative of modernism and how it responded to altered modes of production and consumption, social allegiances, and ideologies. Offering new perspectives to reinvigorate the discussion of domestic relationships and rigorously examine the vexed question of change, Domestic Culture in EarlyModern England will be of interest to scholars and postgraduate students of material culture as well as historians of the household and family more generally. ANTONY BUXTON lectures on design history, material anddomestic culture for the Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford and other institutions. He has published articles in various scholarly journals and holds a PhD from the University of Oxford.
Trade ReviewWill be useful to historians of family life and design history. * OXONIENSIA *
Antony Buxton's book is a timely one. It is focused on domestic life in early modern England--a subject of immense social and political importance which occasioned much contemporary comment as the foundation of patriarchal authority, but which has been little written about by historians of the period. * H-ALBION *
Table of ContentsIntroduction The Thame Household in Context The Early Modern Household in Context Foodstuff Provisioning, Processing and Cooking Commensality and Conviviality Rest and Security The 'Practice' and Domestic Culture of the Thame Household Thame Households Conclusions Bibliography
