Ebook Housewifery

Housewifery: A Manual and Text Book of Practical Housekeeping is intended to be the ultimate resource guide for homemakers. Written by Lydia Ray Balderston it contains advice and techniques for every aspect of the home.

As you would expect from a book portending to be a manual and textbook for homemakers, Housewifery includes entries on a wide range of topics of interest to those tasked with maintaining the home. The book begins with an introductory chapter in which Balderston explains that a housewife should view her job as a man does his, and that a woman should strive to be as proficient in matters of the home as a man is in manners of business. While this is clearly an old-fashioned approach to the matter of housekeeping, the introduction serves to prepare the reader for the subject matter of this text. Balderston's book is divided into chapters, each of which deals with a different aspect of housekeeping. Topics covered include plumbing, heating and lighting, household supplies, storage, cleaning, renovations, disinfectants, household pests, and several others. The breadth and depth of information contained within this book is quite astounding.

Housewifery: A Manual and Text Book of Practical Housekeeping is a product of a time in which household work was solely the domain of women. While the context may have changed, the need for a clean, safe home and the best way to obtain one has not.