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Standard of LivingBooksAmerican Standard of Living 1918-1988by Clair Brown. Not an easy book to find, but it's worth the effort. According to Brown, the economic forces behind improved living standards include the following: mass production of goods with continuous automation of production; introduction of new goods and services as a result of technological innovation; development of credit and mass marketing systems; development of worldwide communication and information systems; and integration of the global economy. The Good Old Days—They Were Terrible! by Otto L. Bettmann. Filled with compelling images and fascinating facts, this book is an instant cure for nostalgia. Material World: A Global Family Portrait by Peter Menzel. Profiles of 30 "statistically average" families from different nations. The large family portraits are unforgettable. They show families outside their houses, surrounded by all their material possessions. More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave by Ruth Schwartz Cowan. Cowan argues that even after industrialization and the introduction of "labor-saving" devices, women were still spending as much time as ever keeping house. Never Done: A History of American Housework by Susan Strasser. The reaction of an online reviewer: "I dreamt life 100 years ago was so much better than today. So simple, so lovely . . . but Strasser's book blew that theory out of the water." Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. Essayist and social critic Barbara Ehrenreich worked at a variety of low-wage jobs to get a feel for what people go through when they try to make ends meet on $6 to $7 an hour. Pursuing Happiness by Stanley Lebergott. Here's what Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley said about Pursuing Happiness: "Writing with lucidity, wit, and forthrightness . . . Lebergott argues that the great American shopping spree is not mere self-indulgence but an essential part of what has been a remarkably successful pursuit of happiness." Their Lives & Numbers: The Condition of Working People in Massachusetts, 1870-1900 edited by Henry F. Bedford. Interviews with people who worked in the mills and factories of Massachusetts during the late 19th century. Most of the interviews originally appeared in annual reports issued by the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, and they provide a good baseline for measuring the improvement in our material standard of living. The Transportation Revolution, 1815-1860 by George R. Taylor. Historians consider Taylor's book a classic. Here's an excerpt that will bring you back to reality when you're "exhausted" after a seven-hour drive on the interstate: “In 1812, a wagon loaded with cotton cards and drawn by four horses took 75 days to travel from Worcester, MA to Charleston, SC.” Everyday Life in America Series Sights, sounds, and smells of daily life instead of dates, battles, and "great men." The Everyday Life Series gives you a feel for what it would have been like to be you in a different time period:
Other Readings
"Eliminating Child Labor"
by Richard Wilkie and Jack Tager, 1991. http://www.geo.umass.edu/faculty/wilkie/Wilkie/maps.html Nice collection of maps and charts (in color!)—population distribution, transportation, communication, and much more. "Human Development Report 2002: Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World" United Nations. http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2002/ "Kitchen Debate" transcript http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=176 PBS: Public Broadcasting Service Three resources on the PBS web site:
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