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Never Done: A History of American Housework Paperback – November 1, 2000

by Susan Strasser (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 36 ratings
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Finally back in print, with a new Preface by the author, this lively, authoritative, and pathbreaking study considers the history of material advances and domestic service, the "women's separate sphere," and the respective influences of advertising, home economics, and women's entry into the workforce. Never Done begins by describing the household chores of nineteenth-century America: cooking at fireplaces and on cast-iron stoves, laundry done with boilers and flatirons, endless water-hauling and fire-tending, and so on. Strasser goes on to explain and explore how industrialization transformed the nature of women's work. Easing some tasks and eliminating others, new commercial processes inexorably altered women's daily lives and relationships—with each other and with those they served.
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  1. Print length
    384 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Holt Paperbacks
  4. Publication date
    November 1, 2000
  5. Dimensions
    6.78 x 1.01 x 9.22 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0805067744
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0805067743
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lively and provocative . . . A wonderful book. For bringing housework into the light of historical scholarship, Strasser deserves to have her name become a household word."—Jacqueline Jones, author of American Work: Four Centuries of Black and White Labor

"A work of genius . . . marvelous to read."—Carolyn See, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Remarkable, rich and acute . . . Retrieves the taken-for-granted minutiae of the everyday life of ordinary people."—The New Yorker

"Rich in detail . . . I have not stopped thinking about this book since I finished reading it."—Nina King, Newsday

About the Author

Susan Strasser is the author of Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash and Satisfaction Guaranteed: The Making of the American Mass Market. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Nation. A professor of history at the University of Delaware, she lives near Washington, D.C.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Holt Paperbacks (November 1, 2000)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0805067744
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0805067743
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.1 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.78 x 1.01 x 9.22 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 36 ratings

About the author

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Susan Strasser

Susan Strasser

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Susan Strasser, Richards Professor Emerita of American History at the University of Delaware, has been praised by the New Yorker for "retrieving what history discards: the taken-for-granted minutiae of everyday life." Never Done: A History of American Housework (1982) won the Sierra Prize of the Western Association of Women Historians; Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash (1999) was awarded the Abel Wolman Award from the Public Works Historical Society. She is currently working on A Historical Herbal, a history of the culture and commerce of medicinal herbs in the United States.

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4.4 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

  • barbara
    5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite books
    Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    I read this book years and years ago when it first came out. I've never forgotten it and bought it again (it was hard to find) because I couldn't find it in my library - I must have loaned it to someone and they still have it. It studies the evolution of housework from 1900 to now......and why the predictions did not come true and how our society (read women's) has changed. It is a great book.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Meghan Goodnight
    4.0 out of 5 stars An Enlightening and Thorough History
    Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2009
    The contemporary reader will have a new appreciation of modern appliances after reading Susan Strasser's Never Done: A History of American Housework. While history texts often focus on political and economic movements, Never Done looks directly into the American household. Strasser's close inspection of domestic life gives the reader a more intimate view into the American family throughout history, particularly women's roles at home and emerging into the workplace.

    From child care to sewing, the illustrated exploration of housework is framed in complete, well rounded chapters. The writing may be heavy but it is not necessarily dry. In her introduction, Strasser comments on the under appreciated value of housework. "In a society where most people distinguish between `life' and `work', women who supervise their own work at home do not seem to be `working.'" The weight of the incorporated facts demands a respect for previous generations of women. The book details how simple tasks today, such as washing laundry or making dinner, formerly required a great deal of strength and time. Imagine, for example, hauling gallons for water to your home from a public pump down the street.

    The author carried out a remarkable amount of research, referring to advertisements, literature, etiquette books, scientific studies, and magazines. Some sources include old ads from the Ladies' Home Journal, photographs from the Farm Security Administration and excerpts from Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper. On a local note, there are regular references to the Manchester textile mills and New England farms.

    Never Done is the perfect book for those interested in family heritage, history, gender and/or women's studies. Those seeking an entertaining beach read probably should turn pages elsewhere. However, Strasser's book is a great conversation piece and source of relief when looking toward a pile of dirty dishes.

    Review written by Manchester, NH's Literature Examiner:
    [...]
    2 people found this helpful
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  • casey Lauger
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great Detail
    Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    There are so few books that are written on the seemingly mundane and simple task of house work that go this in-depth. This book was so helpful and used so many good sources
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Joel E. Bernstein
    3.0 out of 5 stars Dry but thorough illustrated history of American housework
    Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2000
    A dry but thorough history of American housework from the Herculean tasks of colonial days to the consumerist present which ties in broader factors of social trends, economics, and technological advances. Through substantial research and appropriate illustrations, the book documents well the massive, though little noted revolution in the management of the American home over the last 200 years.
    The author's interest in the history of American housework traces back to a 1968 undergraduate thesis later expanded to a Ph.D. thesis. She has used as sources old cookbooks, etiquette books, woman's magazines, household manuals, catalogs, and studies by government bureaus, etc. An example of her source material is the series of comprehensive 19th century manuals published over four decades, beginning in 1841, by Catharine Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe's sister, which reveal in each subsequent edition essential changes in technique and expectations. Strasser noted that although it was clear that until recently woman's role was 'in the home', it was not clear what that entailed and how it meshed with broader societal and economic trends such as technology, urban growth, new work opportunities outside the home, etc.
    The book's 16 chapters each address a major housework category: food availability and obtention; cooking; providing light and heat; the gradual advent of gas and electricity; water and sanitation; washing; making and mending clothing; home income opportunities like boarding, seamstressing, laundering; use of servants; growth of systemization and the home economics movement; child care; informed consumerism; proliferating appliances; fast food; and the environment of today's working mother.
    She notes the colonial household WAS colonial society, serving the functions of home, factory, school, and welfare institution, albeit via Herculean labor and hazardous living conditions, institutions that little by little were usurped by private industry and government. Women spun and wove cloth; made clothing; grew and prepared food for storage and eating; cut wood; hauled water; tended wood fires; made soap, candles, etc.; laboriously laundered clothing ('blue Monday': the worst task by far); and cared for children in their 'spare' moments. Close living and dirt producing heat sources required massive annual spring cleanings. Socially though, families were close, sitting together before the fire (only warm/light part of the house), and neighborly, assisting in chores, sewing circles, laundry day, etc.
    The first big break-through product to affect housekeeping was the cast iron stove. Appearing mid-19th century, it was an enormous improvement over the open hearth. Then in the 1890-1929 period, things really began to change as labor saving appliances appeared (especially plumbing, and gas and electric heat and lighting) and households began to consume the products of American industry like prepared foods, ready-made clothes, purchased and delivered energy/fuel, commercial laundries, and finally labor-saving appliances including electric refrigerators, washers and dryers. And with these changes came massive changes in the American economy. Industries consolidated. Advertising became pervasive. Consumption and the consumer mentality ballooned. The bygone social intimacy and value was lost to 'organized' work and 'organized' leisure at an untold societal price in lost civility, family dissolution, etc. But Strasser notes that these losses must be weighed against the better nutrition, health, and female emancipation that have also resulted.
    The book is an excellent if scholarly study of a massive though little considered revolution that has affected us all.
    24 people found this helpful
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  • "tamacat35"
    4.0 out of 5 stars My Book...I think I'll keep her <snicker>
    Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2001
    I first heard about this book when I attended Evergreen State College. The topic of housework came up as we read "Roll, Jordan Roll" by Eugene Genovese. Some of my classmates wanted to know about housework in its relationship to slavery. And the teacher, Nancy Allen, mentioned that a great book on the subject of housework was "Never Done", by Susan Strasser. Nancy also used the book as a good example of source notes that we might want to learn from in our own course work/research.
    Fast forward my life ten or so years. I'm in an English class and reading "O Pioneers!" by Willa Cather. I remember Ms. Strasser's book! So I read it to broaden my understanding of Ms. Cather's novel and of pioneer and womens domestic lives at that time.
    I had a romanticised view of life in America; times were simpler and therefore better. Susan's book assisted in effectively yet politely dismissing those flowery notions from my thoughts.
    The research required for such a book as this--- clearly labor-intensive, but Ms. Strasser effortlessly writes in a reader-friendly style which doesn't undermine the scholarly nature of this work and its value to Womens Studies.
    19 people found this helpful
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