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summerfjord's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
The book is really, really interesting and easy to follow, despite being full of info and facts.Â
However the audiobook narrator was not very confident with latin and foreign names and instead tended to mumble them. I also wish she had had more feeling when reading, as the tone and speed were slightly sleep inducing..
However the audiobook narrator was not very confident with latin and foreign names and instead tended to mumble them. I also wish she had had more feeling when reading, as the tone and speed were slightly sleep inducing..
aschwartz184's review against another edition
3.0
I respect the author and was excited to read this. Unfortunately I only found parts of it interesting. I like that Goodman explored a unique aspect of history (the introduction of coal) but I didn't find it as fascinating as other microhistories on the era.
gillothen's review against another edition
5.0
This is quite simply superb. Ruth Goodman has spent a long time working on "living archaeology", recreating the methods used by our ancestors to run their homes and small businesses. She knows from practical experience what the differences are between a coal-fuelled household and one relying on wood - and the advantages are not all in the same camp.
She develops a careful argument based on surviving records - inventories, wills, account books - and surviving material goods to explore how and why Britain - starting with London - switched its primary source of domestic fuel from wood to coal in a few short decades at the end of Elizabeth I's reign and that of her successor. She then shows with excellent logic how this change went on to inspire developments in metallurgy - Darby of Coalbrookdale started by making cooking pots - and chemistry, and then became part of the imperialist distribution of British ideas and techniques around the globe. Utterly fascinating, well-argued and full of riveting examples.
She develops a careful argument based on surviving records - inventories, wills, account books - and surviving material goods to explore how and why Britain - starting with London - switched its primary source of domestic fuel from wood to coal in a few short decades at the end of Elizabeth I's reign and that of her successor. She then shows with excellent logic how this change went on to inspire developments in metallurgy - Darby of Coalbrookdale started by making cooking pots - and chemistry, and then became part of the imperialist distribution of British ideas and techniques around the globe. Utterly fascinating, well-argued and full of riveting examples.
a_manning11's review
informative
5.0
Ruth Goodman presents historic fact and the results of her own experiments and experiences with clarity and a logical sequence that is easy to follow and entirely fascinating. Having read "How T Be A Tudor" her historical starting point was already familiar to me, but it was essential to outline the changes that occured with the introduction of coal into the home as well as their consequences. The audio book is well done and I look forward to read/listen to more of Goodman's books in the future. I wish her titles as well as those by Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn were more easily available in the USA.
a_manning11's review against another edition
5.0
Ruth Goodman presents historic fact and the results of her own experiments and experiences with clarity and a logical sequence that is easy to follow and entirely fascinating. Having read "How T Be A Tudor" her historical starting point was already familiar to me, but it was essential to outline the changes that occured with the introduction of coal into the home as well as their consequences. The audio book is well done and I look forward to read/listen to more of Goodman's books in the future. I wish her titles as well as those by Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn were more easily available in the USA.
tybo's review against another edition
5.0
If you are interested in the historical minutiae of everyday life, this book is essential. It details knowledge once so well known nobody thought to write it down, but has since been lost to time and technological revolutions, lost that is until Ruth rediscovered them through decades of experimental archaeology/living history. Subjects include best ways to build cooking fires using a range of fuels, how cuisine has changed based upon favored cooking fuels (including an expose about, of all things, toast!) and how washing and cleaning routines have changed over time. The book also contains a wealth of primary sources if that is more your style. Highly recommended.
bibliowrecka's review against another edition
4.0
Weirdly entertaining for a book about the introduction of coal for cooking and heat in British homes. I've always loved microhistory books, and I've read Goodman's earlier How to Be an Elizabethan and How to Be a Victorian, and I like her chatty style as well as the information she includes from her own domestic experiments. So I was predisposed to like this, and I did, although (maybe because of the subject matter) it wasn't as enthralling as her earlier books to me.