Overview

Full Product Details

9781596914056

Table of Contents

Reviews

[A] fascinating and surprising study. - Boston Globe It may seem strange to think of the sofa as an agent of cultural change. Yet The Age of Comfort, a new book by Joan DeJean, a cultural historian, shows how it not only helped transform the way homes were designed but also struck a blow to longstanding norms of social order. - New York Times In this fascinating and carefully researched volume (reminiscent of Fernand Braudel's The Structures of Everyday Life ) DeJean considers the evolution of each room in the modern home. She looks at the effects of new objects on body language, family configurations and the larger community. This way of looking at history, moving outward from the particulars of everyday life, is particularly thrilling. - Los Angeles Times In her fascinating, immensely readable new book, The Age of Comfort, historian Joan DeJean describes how the French court of the late 17th and early 18th century -- and the small army of architects and designers w

[A] fascinating and surprising study. - Boston Globe   It may seem strange to think of the sofa as an agent of cultural change. Yet The Age of Comfort, a new book by Joan DeJean, a cultural historian, shows how it not only helped transform the way homes were designed but also struck a blow to longstanding norms of social order. - New York Times   In this fascinating and carefully researched volume (reminiscent of Fernand Braudel's The Structures of Everyday Life ) DeJean considers the evolution of each room in the modern home. She looks at the effects of new objects on body language, family configurations and the larger community. This way of looking at history, moving outward from the particulars of everyday life, is particularly thrilling. - Los Angeles Times   In her fascinating, immensely readable new book, The Age of Comfort, historian Joan DeJean describes how the French court of the late 17th and early 18th century -- and the small army of architects

Author Information

Joan DeJean is the author of nine books on French literature, history, and culture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. She is Trustee Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where she has taught for eighteen years. She divides her time between Philadelphia and Paris.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available