Gadgets and Necessities: An Encyclopedia of Household Innovations [Library Binding]

Pauline Webb (Author), Mark Suggitt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000

This amusing and thought provoking A–Z encyclopedia examines modern domestic technology and innovations during the 20th century, exploring the social and cultural conditions that produced such products as the electric iron and the vacuum cleaner.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This compilation of appliances and their underlying principles is a valuable examination of twentieth-century technology and the relief of home drudgery. To express the importance of gadgetry and home time-savers, the authors append a 28-page introduction that beautifully summarizes the shift in thinking about homes, food preparation, cleanliness, and lifestyles. Of particular interest is a summary of women's liberation from responsibility for the world's mess.

The book's 190 entries range over a broad spectrum, from the lowly kettle and sandwich toaster to the Jacuzzi, modem, plastics, Pyrex, and Tefal nonstick surfacing. Entry length varies from two paragraphs on Trouser presses and five on Barbecues to more than two pages on Do-it-yourself and ten on Computers . Coverage is ample, although the absence of entries on water purifiers, icemakers, and bottled water is surprising in view of the inclusion of such low-priority items as Atari and virtual pets. Convenience foods should have included baby food and infant formula.

The text covers a number of important contributors to domestic manufacture, notably S. W. Farber, Inc., A. F. Dormeyer (developer of the electric Household Beater in 1927), the Maytag Corporation, and RCA. The brief histories of Sears, Roebuck; Tupperware; and Kmart are essential to an understanding of how and where household innovations are marketed. Layout and fonts are attractive and accessible. Running heads, cross-referencing, and sources for each entry increase the book's value to historians, students, designers, journalists, feminists, and reference librarians. The authors conclude with an adequate five-page bibliography, a list of 53 designers, and a glossary of 86 technical terms, most of which are related to electronics.

Gadgets and Necessities has merit. The writing is straightforward and factual and unencumbered with jargon. The cover is striking; however, selection of illustrations is skimpy. The price is reasonable. Overall, the book is a worthy addition to the school and public library shelf. REVWR
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"this book is appropriate for public and academic libraries" -- ARBA 2001

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Product Details

• Library Binding: 377 pages
• Publisher: ABC-CLIO (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576070816
• ISBN-13: 978-1576070819
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,098,475 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating encyclopedia of (mostly) kitches appliances, March 16, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Gadgets and Necessities: An Encyclopedia of Household Innovations (Library Binding)

Gadgets and Necessities is a fascinating encyclopedia with a slightly misleading title and a misguided introductory essay. To its credit, the entries are well-written, amply illustrated, and adequately researched, but it should be made clear that this is an historical encyclopedia rather than a general encyclopedia. Further, it is a broad-ranging survey of household appliances and tools, their designs, and the institutions and individuals who made them possible in the United State, Europe, and Japan. The authors survey the range of accoutrements found in the middle class home in the twentieth century, and touch upon kitchen, lawn and garden, and bathroom implements; major manufacturers and retailers such as Apple Computer, AT&T, Hamilton Beach, EMI, and Kmart; industry associations such as the National Electric Light Association, and the major movements in product design. Inexplicably, though, the authors claim that "an alternative title to this book could therefore be "Electricity and Desire." While the electrical and electronic devices represented here predominate, there are many non-electrical entries as well, ranging from Brillo pads to bidets, with no attempt to treat them as special cases or link them to the development of electrical technologies. Indeed, there is no good reason to call this an encyclopedia of electrical appliance history, though there is much good electrical history here. Despite these objections, the reader interested in capsule histories of the most familiar types of household objects should be delighted with this book. It is an excellent reference work that will undoubtedly become the standard work of its type.