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tanyarobinson 's review for:
The Domestic Revolution
by Ruth Goodman
My mom took one look at this book and said, "How can you have a whole book about the change to using coal? It seems like that should take about a chapter." Well, Ruth Goodman, who has spent much of her life participating in historical reenactments of domestic life, managed to fill 300 pages with very interesting details about "the coal revolution." I never realized this before, but England alone switched to nearly exclusive domestic coal use in the late 1500s, while continental Europe and the New World continued with wood-burning for another 200+ years. It may seem a small change, but it drastically impacted British cuisine, cooking implements, laundry, and general cleanliness in radical ways.
Having only done simple campfire cooking over a fire, I didn't realize there was a whole art to regulating temperatures and preparing a variety of foods over wood embers. Nor did I realize the huge change caused by the substitution of more diffuse and hotter-burning coal, which required completely different techniques, and led to the popularization of different types of dishes, ultimately producing what is thought of as "English Cuisine." Different types of brass and iron cookware were required and new "fire furniture" was needed to hold and manage the coals.
I think the biggest change, though, came with cleanliness, or lack thereof. While wood fires can be smokey, coal burning gives off greasy particles that create a film on everything they touch. Traditional cleaning with brushes and ash, with very little water, was ineffective at removing this new dirtiness. Thus came the rise of soap, and with it the gradual connection of British soap-led sanitation with superior moral and ethnic cleanliness. As the British led the Industrial Revolution and expanded their Empire, use of coal and soap were proselytized, adding customers to burgeoning British industries.
Methods for doing laundry changed as well, with large quantities of soap and hot water and scrubbing now replacing lye (from wood ash) and cold rinse. Overall, Goodman comments that the switch to coal created much more work for women, and likely contributed to Victorian ideas of "a woman's place" in the home, as she now had little remaining time for outside chores. I can't imagine a change that presented us with MORE work for the same basic result being embraced today, but that just goes to show how little influence women had in the 15- and 1600s. Still, I suppose it was overall a good thing that we stopped burning wood, or there would be no trees left....
Goodman makes some interesting points regarding the current transition underway as we move from the use of fossil fuels toward new greener energy. How will this change shift our domestic chores and behaviors? And what other modifications to our lives will a seemingly simple fuel change bring?
3.5 stars.
Having only done simple campfire cooking over a fire, I didn't realize there was a whole art to regulating temperatures and preparing a variety of foods over wood embers. Nor did I realize the huge change caused by the substitution of more diffuse and hotter-burning coal, which required completely different techniques, and led to the popularization of different types of dishes, ultimately producing what is thought of as "English Cuisine." Different types of brass and iron cookware were required and new "fire furniture" was needed to hold and manage the coals.
I think the biggest change, though, came with cleanliness, or lack thereof. While wood fires can be smokey, coal burning gives off greasy particles that create a film on everything they touch. Traditional cleaning with brushes and ash, with very little water, was ineffective at removing this new dirtiness. Thus came the rise of soap, and with it the gradual connection of British soap-led sanitation with superior moral and ethnic cleanliness. As the British led the Industrial Revolution and expanded their Empire, use of coal and soap were proselytized, adding customers to burgeoning British industries.
Methods for doing laundry changed as well, with large quantities of soap and hot water and scrubbing now replacing lye (from wood ash) and cold rinse. Overall, Goodman comments that the switch to coal created much more work for women, and likely contributed to Victorian ideas of "a woman's place" in the home, as she now had little remaining time for outside chores. I can't imagine a change that presented us with MORE work for the same basic result being embraced today, but that just goes to show how little influence women had in the 15- and 1600s. Still, I suppose it was overall a good thing that we stopped burning wood, or there would be no trees left....
Goodman makes some interesting points regarding the current transition underway as we move from the use of fossil fuels toward new greener energy. How will this change shift our domestic chores and behaviors? And what other modifications to our lives will a seemingly simple fuel change bring?
3.5 stars.