The American Family Home, 1800-1960 [Paperback]

Clifford Edward Jr. Clark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 1986

In the nineteenth century, architects and family reformers launched promotional campaigns portraying houses no longer as simply physical structures in which families lived but as emblems for family cohesiveness and identity. Clark explains why, despite the fear of standardization and homogenization, the middle class has persisted in viewing the single-family home as the main symbol of independence as as the distinguishing sign of having achieved middle-class status.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Professors Gowans and Clark (History of Art and American Studies respectively) have each authored a scholarly treatment of the American home in its cultural context. Both books include analyses of architectural style, but the authors are also concerned with the symbolic functions of the middle-class home. Both identify the qualities that were of importance in the perception of home and hearth: security, roots in the past, respectability, and the virtue of family stability. The Comfortable House has the narrower scope, as it sorts out the proliferation of house styles in the period when more homes were built than in the country's entire previous history. This was an era of flight from the city, and the "comfortable home" was most importantly one that was removed from the squalor of urban living. Although there were new styles, designs of this time often incorporated architectural traditions of past eras; Gowans explores how the prefabricated models differed in social functions from those of earlier times. The American Family Home, 1800-1960 is broader in both chronology and treatment. Clark chronicles the idealized vision of the middle-class home and uses a variety of sources, including popular magazines, builders' plan books, and advertising. He analyzes four building styles (Gothic, Queen Anne, Bungalow, and Ranch House Modern), setting forth the reformers' vision and comparing those ideals to the houses that were built and the experiences of individual families. His discussion extends to changes in interior space, decor, and furnishings. Both books are heavily illustrated and include extensive notes and bibliographies. Both are highly recommended, although Clark's is the more substantial work and will be of interest to a wider readership. Douglas G. Birdsall, North Dakota State Univ. Lib., Fargo
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

An excellent and needed study of the important relation between houses and the fabric of American family life.

Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, Scripps College

A stimulating book, one that should appeal to readers interested in architecture as well as in family or women's history.

North Carolina Historical Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 297 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press; First Edition edition (September 12, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080784151X
• ISBN-13: 978-0807841518
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #877,779 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent foundation for understanding American Housing, August 1, 2000

By 

David M. Bargetzi (Lakewood, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The American Family Home, 1800-1960 (Paperback)

Few books, in my experience are written as clearly as this one. Clark leads the reader carefully and thoughtfully from 1800 to 1960, and shows why certain styles of home were popular in each era. His word choice is excellent and his sentence formation is flawless. He gives many examples and the book is well illustrated. For anyone wishing to understand why Americans have bought and built the houses they have, and what they hoped to get out of them, this is the book to buy. Get two.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nice introduction but lacks details, April 6, 2009

By 

Paul Eckler (princeton jct, nj United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The American Family Home, 1800-1960 (Paperback)

"The American Family Home, 1800-1960," by Clifford Edward Clark, Jr., University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1986. This 281-page paperback reviews American home architecture, and includes social commentary on changes in the family and the status of women, as home styles changed from strict Victorian standards to the more relaxed bungalow and finally the ranch style. We learn that once austere Greek Revival style was the standard. In about 1850, a New York landscape architect, Andrew Jackson Downing, developed modern balloon construction rather than the then common post and beam method with mortised and tenoned joints. This method of construction was gradually adopted in America as it was simpler, required less technical expertise and allowed more flexible house plans. Along with this change came a host of pattern books that encouraged new styles. Gothic and Italianate styles followed.

The book does best with its discussion of the bungalow, which was conceived as a response to the Victorian styles after about 1900. The bungalow is a single story (or story and a half with dormers) with a wide, low pitched roof usually with a broad porch and a substantial overhang at the eaves to shade the windows. Ideally they are built of natural local materials to blend into their environment. That can mean redwood in California, fieldstone or cobblestone in New England, board and batten in Oregon, or adobe in Arizona. Bungalows were popular until the ranch style arrived at the end of World War II. The book does a good job of describing Levitown and related suburban developments of ranch styles.

In some respects the book is superficial. You will not find clear definitions of the various house styles. Instead this is a picture book with many illustrations and mostly watered down text. The classical center hall colonial is barely mentioned. You will find no mention of the I-house, the el, or the dogtrot. Technology has forced changes in houses. House plans show early bathing rooms and some discussion of venting sewers, but there is little discussion of the changes in house plans that resulted. Heating technologies meant a chimney in every room until the arrival of central heating systems (steam, then gravity air), which favored a chimney in the center of the house (until electricity allowed forced air heating systems). Lighting systems (candles, kerosene, gaslight, electricity) changed the role of windows. None of this is mentioned.

This book is most useful as an introduction to the subject. Its language is non-technical. Many readers will prefer a more detailed treatment of the subject. Illustrations. References. Bibliography. Indexed.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful resource and a fascinating read, January 22, 2006

By 

Rosemary Thornton "Niece of Addie Hoyt Fargo ... (Norfolk, VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The American Family Home, 1800-1960 (Paperback)

Whilst writing my tome on Sears Homes, I kept Clark's book close at hand as a resource. Years earlier, I'd read it cover to cover and just loved it. "The American Family Home" is written by a college professor but it's a warm, conversational and fascinating read. Lacks the dry-as-dust technical, clunky language that some architectural writers seem to relish (and employ!).

What I love most about his book is that he explains HOW and WHY American architecture evolved the way that it did. He explains (in delicious and interesting depth) why the early-1900s bungalow was actually a specific response to the ostentatious and ornate Victorians of the late 1800s.

This book was well-researched and well written. I highly recommend it, both as an entertaining book and a wonderful resource to help you gain a deeper appreciation and understanding of America's architecture.

Rose Thornton
author, The Houses That Sears Built