The Invention of Comfort : Sensibilities and Design in Early Modern Britain and Early America

How did our modern ideas of physical well-being originate? As John Crowley demonstrates in__The Invention of Comfort,__changes in sensible technology owed a great deal to fashion-conscious elites discovering__dis__comfort in surroundings they earlier had felt to be satisfactory.Written in an engaging style that will appeal to historians and material culture specialists as well as to general readers, this pathbreaking work brings together such disparate topics of analysis as climate, fire, food, clothing, the senses, and anxiety—especially about the night.

How did our modern ideas of physical comfort originate? As John E. Crowleydemonstrates in The Invention of Comfort, changes in the technology of comfort depended on a fashion-conscious public's being made to feel discomfort with surroundings that they had previously perceived as functionally adequate.

Definitions of comfort changed over time, Crowley shows, and men and women sometimes interpreted comfort differently. Crowley begins by examining the material culture of heating and illumination in British domestic environments during the postmedieval centuries, when comfort was primarily a moral term implying consolation and support. Comfort as a physical ideal emerged in response to eighteenth-century material culture in Britain and the colonies artificial illumination and new facilities for heating created an environment in which domestic activities, and their attendant patterns of consumption, were less hindered by traditional elemental constraints. This emphasis on a satisfying relationship between one's body and the immediate physical environment comes close to our modern idea of comfort.

Written in an engaging style that will appeal to historians and material culture specialists as well as to general readers, this pathbreaking work brings together such disparate topics of analysis as climate, fire, food, clothing, the senses, and anxiety especially about the night. Crowley highlights his arguments with excerpts from historical documents diaries, travel accounts, politeness manuals, and personal letters and includes analysis of architectural plans and domestic art (reproduced in the book's many illustrations).

About the Author:
John E. Crowley is George Munro Professor of History at Dalhousie University. He is the author of The Privileges of Independence: Neomercantilism and the American Revolution, also available from Johns Hopkins.

Booknews

Modern ideas of physical comfort, says Crowley (history, Dalhousie U.), originated with a fashion-conscious public being made to feel discomfort with surroundings they had previous perceived as adequate. He reviews heating and illumination in British houses after the Middle Ages, but argues that comfort as a physical ideal emerged in response to 18th-century material culture there and in the colonies. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

"How did our modern ideas of physical comfort originate? As John E. Crowley demonstrates in The Invention of Comfort, changes in the technology of comfort depended on a fashion-conscious public's being made to feel discomfort with surroundings that they had previously perceived as functionally adequate.". "Written in an engaging style that will appeal to historians and material culture specialists as well as to general readers, this work brings together such disparate topics of analysis as climate, fire, food, clothing, the senses, and anxiety - especially about the night. Crowley highlights his arguments with excerpts from historical documents - diaries, travel accounts, politeness manuals, and personal letters - and includes analysis of architectural plans and domestic art (reproduced in the book's many illustrations)."--BOOK JACKET. Annotation How did our modern ideas of physical well-being originate? As John Crowley demonstrates in The Invention of Comfort, changes in sensible technology owed a great deal to fashion-conscious elites discovering discomfort in surroundings they earlier had felt to be satisfactory. Written in an engaging style that will appeal to historians and material culture specialists as well as to general readers, this pathbreaking work brings together such disparate topics of analysis as climate, fire, food, clothing, the senses, and anxiety - especially about the night How did our modern ideas of physical well-being originate? As John Crowley demonstrates in The Invention of Comfort, changes in sensible technology owed a great deal to fashion-conscious elites discovering dis comfort in surroundings they earlier had felt to be satisfactory. Written in an engaging style that will appeal to historians and material culture specialists as well as to general readers, this pathbreaking work brings together such disparate topics of analysis as climate, fire, food, clothing, the senses, and anxiety—especially about the night. Commodious comfort : hall and hearth, chamber and chimney -- Civil comfort : mansion houses -- Colonial comfort : vernacular and elegant options -- Decent comfort : candles and mirrors -- Convenient comfort : political economy -- Enlightened comfort : stoves and lamps -- Picturesque comfort : the cottage -- Healthy comfort : the piazza -- Gendered comfort : house design books.