Ebook Biting the Dust: The Joys of Housework, by Margaret Horsfield
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Biting the Dust: The Joys of Housework, by Margaret Horsfield
Ebook Biting the Dust: The Joys of Housework, by Margaret Horsfield
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In this witty look at our obsession with cleaning, Margaret Horsfield confronts her own dirt demons and scours the social, historical, literary and psychological nooks and crannies of the world of household chores. Through historical research, countless interviews with people and an analysis of characters from novels and advertising, Horsfield presents such memorable personalities as the woman who sends her small daughter to walk around other people's houses in white tights to check for dirt and the mother who, upon her son's suicide, sheds not a tear but stays up all night frantically polishing her already gleaming hardwood floors. From demented television housewives to the redoubtable Mrs. Beeton, Biting the Dust runs the gamut of ideas and emotions.
- Sales Rank: #767085 in Books
- Published on: 1999-04-15
- Released on: 1999-04-15
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.24" h x .89" w x 5.48" l, .1 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 320 pages
From Publishers Weekly
When is a house clean? Like politics and religion, it's one of those questions that tends to bring out peoples' hardwired beliefs. Horsfield, a reporter for BBC, CBC, the Guardian and the Independent, uses her journalistic skills to investigate not only how, but why, we clean. Using historical, literary, psychological and personal sources, she traces the long and tangled evolution. From the beginning, cleaning transcended mere physical implications. It was linked to spiritual and moral cleansing?the ancient battle between good and evil played out between grime and elbow grease. The romantic ideal of the housewife was born, and it was her duty to protect her family from dirt. In the late 19th century, the germ theory of disease scared women onto a new plane of anxiety about the cleanliness of their households. With the introduction of soap around the same time, the media turned method to madness by establishing standards of cleanliness that were suffocating, imprisoning and impossible to live up to. Bringing her subject up to the present, Horsfield blames people like Martha Stewart for perpetuating a kind of "domestic pornography" that encourages women to fight a losing battle by creating yet another impossible, media-fueled ideal. Horsfield couldn't take a more ordinary subject and make it more interesting. In a thought-provoking, informative, yet endlessly entertaining way, she proves housecleaning to be an intensely personal, irrational and self-defining activity, while giving important insight into why a woman's work is never done. B&w illustrations.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
“A spiffy book . . .” ―The New York Times Book Review
“An often fascinating history that by turns will have you flailing under the beds for dust devils and laughing until your sides ache.” ―The Chicago Tribune
“An entertaining combination of literary tidbits, social history, and personal recollections . . . wise and witty.” ―The Boston Globe
From the Publisher
"Good, clean fun...A spiffy book, but please don't tell my mother I said that." --Andrea Higbie, The New York Times Book Review
"Horsfield wrings something quite wonderful here, an often fascinating social history that by turns will have you flailing under the beds for dust devils and laughing until your sides ache." --The Miami Herald
"An entertaining combination of literary tidbits, social history, and personal recollections...wise and witty." --The Boston Globe
"A touchingly obsessive display of research devoted to the history of scrubbing, vacuuming, bleaching and dusting." --Baltimore Sun
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Life Changing - gave me new meaning and focus - Earth Shattering!
By PR Adams
This book changed my life - in fact I had to order a back up copy because I literally wore my first hardcover copy out with repeated (to this very day) reading of it. I cannot adequately express my gratitude to Ms. Horsfield for her most important contribution to the world with this book. I'll sum it up with, thank you and God bless - you changed my life and I'm so happy I discovered this book. It gave my life a clarity and a focus that was sorely lacking.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent social history of housework
By Pamela
I agree with the reviewer who called this book "riveting." It is a marvelous social history of housekeeping and domestic work from a writer who has a good understanding of the myriad pressures facing women who are responsible for keeping a clean house. You will appreciate the commentary here if you are interested in women's history and the status of women in the family, not to mention the much-maligned field of home economics. Yes, there is an international perspective, but this makes the book *more*, not less credible.
Gives an interesting history of the development of the "germ" theory and how manufacturers of cleaning products, both now and in the past, use(d) pseudo-scientific claims to convince women to buy newer and even more products. Asks whether time-saving products, such as vacuum cleaners and washing machines, actually INcreased the amount of time spent cleaning by raising expectations. Talks about flies, filth, public sanitation, and real health issues as they relate to household hygiene. Also a chapter about gender and the role of men in contributing (or not) to domestic tasks.
Lots of cutting commentary about commercially-motivated home economists, such as Martha Stewart and her predecessors. Plus a chapter about "clean freaks" and obsessive-compulsive behavior as it relates to housecleaning. All in all, a highly engaging book which offers a great deal of insight to any reader interested in women's issues or domestic history.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Surprisingly interesting
By A Customer
I thought this book was pretty good. Horsfield never gets preachy and remains amusing, which is probably what makes the book work. Whenever someone saw me reading this book, they kind of turned their nose up and asked, "What's there to say about cleaning your house?" Surprisingly a lot. Horsfield really approaches the issue from all different angles so it doesn't get boring. Admittedly, in some places the examples were a bit too exhaustive, but that was fine - I just skipped a few paragraphs and then carried on. I particularly liked her critique of others' books on housework, both historical and contemporary, mocking how "experts" have tried to declare from above how we should maintain our homes. Horsfield admits to being halfway between a lazy housekeeper and a crazed cleaner and her autobiographical anecdotes, as well as those from the outer edges of the spectrum were pretty amusing. Twice while reading I had to put the book down and go clean something - the first time to bleach my countertops, the second time to scrub my toilet. The rest of the time, however, I enjoyed reading this book while willfully ignoring my barely maintained apartment. Shows what kind of cleaner I am.
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