Description
Item specifics
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Condition
-
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ISBN
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0393241092
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EAN
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9780393241099
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Publication Name
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N/A
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Type
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Hardback
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Release Title
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Servants – A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth…
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Artist
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Lethbridge, Lucy
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Brand
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N/A
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Colour
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N/A
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Book Title
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Servants : a Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times
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Publisher
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Norton & Company, Incorporated, w. w.
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Item Length
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9.6 in
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Publication Year
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2013
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Format
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Hardcover
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Language
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English
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Illustrator
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Yes
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Item Height
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1.4 in
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Genre
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Social Science, Business & Economics, History
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Topic
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Social Classes & Economic Disparity, Sociology / General, Social History, Europe / Great Britain / General, Labor
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Item Weight
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21.4 Oz
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Item Width
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6.4 in
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Number of Pages
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400 Pages
Servants – A Downstairs History of …, Lethbridge, Luc
About this product
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Norton & Company, Incorporated, w. w.
ISBN-10
0393241092
ISBN-13
9780393241099
eBay Product ID (ePID)
160030167
Product Key Features
Book Title
Servants : a Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times
Number of Pages
400 Pages
Language
English
Topic
Social Classes & Economic Disparity, Sociology / General, Social History, Europe / Great Britain / General, Labor
Publication Year
2013
Illustrator
Yes
Genre
Social Science, Business & Economics, History
Format
Hardcover
Dimensions
Item Height
1.4 in
Item Weight
21.4 Oz
Item Length
9.6 in
Item Width
6.4 in
Additional Product Features
Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2013-028069
Reviews
Lucy Lethbridge turns servants into stars, offering a colorful and compelling social history about the men, women, and children whose occupation rendered them invisible. Buoyed by substantial research, engaging anecdotes, and a lively narrative, the book places generations of overlooked domestics center stage, where, finally, they receive the attention they have always deserved., Beautifully written, sparkling with insight, and a pleasure to read, Servants is social history at its most humane and perceptive., Unlike the cozy downstairs world of Downton Abbey, most of those for whom the bell-pulls tolled in great British houses led existences of ceaseless drudgery and petty humiliation. Yet here Lucy Lethbridge re-creates the lives of everyone from butlers and housekeepers to ‘tweenies’ and ‘skivvies’ in a way that never fails to fascinate. With meticulous research and engaging prose she evokes a world that the plutocrats of America’s Gilded Age tried hard to emulate., Lethbridge writes with sympathy about her subject…. Evenhanded to the end, [she] stresses the inherent dignity of domestic service., Thorough and vastly entertaining…[Lethbridge’s] style is elegant, detached and slyly witty…Richly complex and enjoyable., Vivid …. Household service provides Lethbridge with a window into almost every corner of social history., In this excellent addition to the history of domestic service in the 20th century, Lucy Lethbridge has swept the existing archive and added new sources of her own. The result is a richly textured account of what it felt like to spend the decades of high modernity on your knees with a dustpan and brush., As a panorama, Servants is a great success. Enthusiasts of bonnets and waistcoasts will find Upstairs Downstairs or Downton Abbey all the more enjoyable after reading this nuanced and elegantly written account of the wider context. And in tracing the history of servants throughout the whole of the 20th century, Lethbridge offers a new vantage point from which to reassess British social history., Absorbing history, much of it in the words of servants…[Lethbridge’s] subject is many-branched and full of pressing issues., A lively and complicating account of British social history seen through the eyes of the workers who made it possible., Move over Downton Abbey, Lucy Lethbridge portrays life below stairs as it really was. Absorbing, highly entertaining, and impeccably researched, Servants is so much fun to read that it’s practically a guilty pleasure., The panoramic view of the subject and Lethbridge’s engaging style and sharp observations make this book a valuable addition., Lethbridge captures the revolution with both sweep and intimacy, and never loses sight of the workers at its heart.
Synopsis
From the immense staff running a lavish Edwardian estate and the lonely maid-of-all-work cooking in a cramped middle-class house to the poor child doing chores in a slightly less poor household, servants were essential to the British way of life. They were hired not only for their skills but also to demonstrate the social standing of their employers–even as they were required to tread softly and blend into the background. More than simply the laboring class serving the upper crust–as popular culture would have us believe–they were a diverse group that shaped and witnessed major changes in the modern home, family, and social order. Spanning over a hundred years, Lucy Lethbridge’in this “best type of history” ( Literary Review )?brings to life through letters and diaries the voices of countless men and women who have been largely ignored by the historical record. She also interviews former and current servants for their recollections of this waning profession. At the fore are the experiences of young girls who slept in damp corners of basements, kitchen maids who were required to stir eggs until the yolks were perfectly centered, and cleaners who had to scrub floors on their hands and knees despite the wide availability of vacuum cleaners. We also meet a lord who solved his inability to open a window by throwing a brick through it and Winston Churchill’s butler who did not think Churchill would know how to dress on his own. A compassionate and discerning exploration of the complex relationship between the server, the served, and the world they lived in, Servants opens a window onto British society from the Edwardian period to the present., From the immense staff running a lavish Edwardian estate and the lonely maid-of-all-work cooking in a cramped middle-class house to the poor child doing chores in a slightly less poor household, servants were essential to the British way of life. They were hired not only for their skills but also to demonstrate the social standing of their employers–even as they were required to tread softly and blend into the background. More than simply the laboring class serving the upper crust–as popular culture would have us believe–they were a diverse group that shaped and witnessed major changes in the modern home, family, and social order. Spanning over a hundred years, Lucy Lethbridge?in this “best type of history” ( Literary Review )?brings to life through letters and diaries the voices of countless men and women who have been largely ignored by the historical record. She also interviews former and current servants for their recollections of this waning profession. At the fore are the experiences of young girls who slept in damp corners of basements, kitchen maids who were required to stir eggs until the yolks were perfectly centered, and cleaners who had to scrub floors on their hands and knees despite the wide availability of vacuum cleaners. We also meet a lord who solved his inability to open a window by throwing a brick through it and Winston Churchill’s butler who did not think Churchill would know how to dress on his own. A compassionate and discerning exploration of the complex relationship between the server, the served, and the world they lived in, Servants opens a window onto British society from the Edwardian period to the present., From the immense staff running a lavish Edwardian estate and the lonely maid-of-all-work cooking in a cramped middle-class house to the poor child doing chores in a slightly less poor household, servants were essential to the British way of life. They were hired not only for their skills but also to demonstrate the social standing of their employers–even as they were required to tread softly and blend into the background. More than simply the laboring class serving the upper crust–as popular culture would have us believe–they were a diverse group that shaped and witnessed major changes in the modern home, family, and social order. Spanning over a hundred years, Lucy Lethbridge?in this “best type of history” (Literary Review)?brings to life through letters and diaries the voices of countless men and women who have been largely ignored by the historical record. She also interviews former and current servants for their recollections of this waning profession. At the fore are the experiences of young girls who slept in damp corners of basements, kitchen maids who were required to stir eggs until the yolks were perfectly centered, and cleaners who had to scrub floors on their hands and knees despite the wide availability of vacuum cleaners. We also meet a lord who solved his inability to open a window by throwing a brick through it and Winston Churchill’s butler who did not think Churchill would know how to dress on his own. A compassionate and discerning exploration of the complex relationship between the server, the served, and the world they lived in, Servants opens a window onto British society from the Edwardian period to the present.
LC Classification Number
HD8039.D52G7766
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