Everyday Life in the 1800s: A Guide for Writers, Students & Historians (Writer's Guides to Everyday Life) [Paperback]

Marc McCutcheon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Writer's Guides to Everyday Life | Publication Date: March 1, 2001

This is a complete reference, offering pertinent information about the nineteenth century in a logical, accessible form. Fiction and nonfiction historical writers interested in this period will find this book a must. The wonderful and fascinating details of the 1800s have never before been gathered into one volume. And, to make the information even more interesting, McCutcheon has included quotes from 19th-century citizens concerning or describing key words and definitions. This complete guide tells writers: "in" hairstyles and fashions for every decade of the century; the cost to mail a letter; favorite swear words and slang; thieves methods for cracking bank safes; courtship and marriage rituals; jokes of the period; and much more!

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The Everyday Life series helps writers, students and researchers save valuable time and bring richness and historical accuracy to their work. Each guide describes the food, clothes, customs, slang, occupations, religions, politics and other historical details that are so often difficult to find.

About the Author

Marc McCutcheon is the author of The Compass in Your Nose and Other Astonishing Facts About Humans, plus more than 100 articles in various publications, including Omni and Cosmopolitan.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Writers Digest Books; 1 edition (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582970637
• ISBN-13: 978-1582970639
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #518,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT Reference Tool...Superbly Written and Detailed., May 2, 2001

By 

Christine "loves to read" (Setauket, NY, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Everyday Life in the 1800s: A Guide for Writers, Students & Historians (Writer's Guides to Everyday Life) (Paperback)

This reference guide is a MUST HAVE for all writers of historical fiction. Even fans of the genre will find the contents fascinating. Here is a sampling from the Table Of Contents...a simple summation here will not do this book true justice:

Slang and Everyday Speech: even includes swear words, euphemisms and Appalachian Speech -- and examples on how to use them!

Driving Customs: different modes of transportation (including wagons, carriages, stage coaches, canals, etc.)

Home Life: types of houses, furniture, lighting and housekeeping methods, etc.

Clothing and Fashion -- including a chronology of hairstyles (what FUN it was reading this!)

Careers and Occupations: including "street vendor cries" and child labor

Money and Currency: different currencies and their values (wish they had pictures!) Confederate Money, foreign currency and exchange

Health and Medicine: aside from the usual common illnesses and their treatments also included are quack remedies, medicines, premature burial

Common foods, alcoholic beverages, how they preserved foods and what it was like to hang out in a saloon Different Pastimes, Games, sports and social customs,

Dating and marriage customs,

Slave customs and everyday life, including music and dialect. There is even a sidebar on the occupations of free blacks. I found it interesting that there were also Negro slave owners during this period -- see page 220!

The Civil War: practices, customs, weaponry, (very inclusive)

The Wild West: cowboys and their customs, regional slang, food and drink

Criminal activity, slang and common punishments

All in all everything you need to create a "filled to the brim" first draft is here. Use of this book will certainly cure any form of writer's block.

My favorite section is the Chronology of Events towards the back of the book (begins on page 283 of the hardcover edition). Here you will find very valuable timetables...from 1800-1900. Also included in this section is a Chronology of books, novels and magazines that were published during this time period; as well as inventions, songs and other noted innovations. The author then concludes the book with a resource guide to other references helpful to the historical writer.

Absolutely superb...Enjoy

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Should be called Everyday Life in AMERICA in 1800's, October 9, 2005

By 

VB "book lover" (Kent, WA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Everyday Life in the 1800s: A Guide for Writers, Students & Historians (Writer's Guides to Everyday Life) (Paperback)

I was disappointed when I received this book because I had assumed from the editor reviews that this book was about life in the 1800's in Europe as well as America. That's how it's marketed, but I'd say over 95% of the facts related refer to the United States. If you're looking for a reference book on America in the 1800's then this is good, but not if you're interested in European manners and customs of that time period.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Superficial Look at the Nineteenth Century, July 26, 2005

By 

Angie Pink (Cornwall, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everyday Life in the 1800s: A Guide for Writers, Students & Historians (Writer's Guides to Everyday Life) (Paperback)

As a writer of this time period, I thought this book would be useful to flesh-out my work and keep it as historically accurate as possible. In this respect, I think it does a marginal job.

Most of my interest centres upon Britain and this book mainly focuses on the US (and not just urban locations such as New England, but the frontier states too). So I suppose if you're looking for more European-based information it would be best to procure a different text. The book is organised in a unique way, with such chapters as "Slang," "Around the House," and "Out on the Range." Each of these chapters breaks down into a glossary of useful words and phrases pertaining to the chapter. Sadly, the glossary represents the extent of the chapter.

Little of the text works chronologically, which really doesn't make sense for such sections as "Clothing and Fashion." Block text would actually be more useful in this section. Illustrations would help too, but there really aren't any. The entries are relatively cursory and superficial; this work probably best functions as a jumping-off point, but you'll probably want to buy additional books to describe your characters' clothing.

In total, this book offers good "bite" definitions for pertinent words and historical concepts, but that's about it. It's more of a simple dictionary than an in-depth encyclopaedia.