The Making of the Modern Kitchen A Cultural History

by Freeman, June

• ISBN13: 9781859736944
• ISBN10: 1859736947
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-07-02
• Publisher: Berg Pub Ltd

Summary

Kitchens are where we cook, clean, cry, talk, laugh, break things. Hugely symbolic - as well as practical - kitchens evoke thoughts of hearth and home, family and domesticity. People today commonly spend more refurbishing their kitchens than refurbishing any other room in the home. On kitchen units alone, annual expenditure in England has been around the billion pound mark for some time. And this only represents part of what people spend on a kitchen. For, when they do up their kitchens, people frequently also buy new machinery and nearly always buy new accessories. To get at the heart of the meaning, design and purpose of the modern kitchen, the author interviewed a sample of seventy four homeowners. She follows them through the process of shopping and purchasing a new kitchen, and she discusses the importance of layout, colour, shape and texture. She explores the dominant role that women play in shaping the appearance of a new kitchen and considers the evolution of the modern kitchen in the context of the consumer age. The first history of the fitted kitchen in England, this innovative new book will appeal to anyone interested in design, sociology, gender studies and cultural history.

Author Biography

June Freeman is Chair of the Essex Domestic Violence Strategy Co-ordinating Group, University of Essex.

Table of Contents

1 Spotlight on the kitchen: an outline of the scope and approach of the book	1	(24)
2 Kitchen design as an expression of twentieth-century proselytising	25	(30)
3 From the general to the particular and how it was done	55	(12)
4 First findings from the sample	67	(12)
5 Shopping begins	79	(20)
6 Gender and the acquisition of a new kitchen	99	(30)
7 Not only but also: instrumental and expressive considerations	129	(26)
8 Finishing off and adding the clutter	155	(18)
9 Reviewing the endeavour and endeavouring to conclude	173	(24)
Bibliography	197	(4)
Index	201