Jennifer Mcknight Trontz - Home Economics: Vintage Advice and Practical Science for the 21st-Century Household

Thanks to Quirk Books for the opportunity to do this project. Special thanks to Mary Ellen Wilson and Jenny Kraemer for helping to make it extra special. And thank you to the homemakers who provided all the useful information featured in this book.

Copyright 2010 by Quirk Productions, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Number: 2010924451

eBook ISBN: 978-1-59474-750-2
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-59474-461-7

Art direction by Jenny Kraemer
Hardcover production management by Melissa Jacobson

Quirk Books
215 Church Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
quirkbooks.com

v3.1

Technology has made life easier for billions of people, but one of its greatest benefits is its contribution to womens rights. Liberated from the need to have someone at home all day long, women could work in offices, flip burgers, run banks. Home economics (home ec to dwindling generations of high school students) was seen as a lowering of horizons, regressive even.

Home Economics: Vintage Advice and Practical Science for the 21st-Century Household revisits the disciplines textbooks and lessons dating from the 1900s to the 1940s, when homemaking was considered a profession unto itself, and a noble (if unpaid) one at that. It is not necessarily a call for a return to simpler times, but a celebration of the vast amount of critical knowledge once entrusted to the nations homemakers and now in need of a good dose of dusting.

Even a cursory review of the lessons gives a sense of how much know-how has been lost: how to hand wash different fabrics; which substances remove which stains; troubleshooting the many types of tragedy known as cake failure. Some lessons are quaint; others are wishful. Many are picky. But even the most basic of lessons are, seen from the distance of our times, almost clever in their simplicity. Sure, you know how to use a broom. But do you sweep in small strokes, away from you so as not to snare dust in your clothing? Do you know which colors clash? Did you ever consider that dining room curtains should be easily washable, to get rid of food odors?

Most home economics texts stressed the science of homemaking, and they were not being cute. The homemaker had to know what vitamins and nutrients each member of her family needed, and which foods provided them for the least money. She learned that the tough cut of meat was as nutritious as the filetand through scientific knowledge, she could make it just as tasty.

Some practices that pass for retro chic today were considered sound living. No one thought it radical to use natural cleaners like baking soda and vinegar. A jacket with a worn elbow was not tossed, but patched. Hose and socks were darned, not ditched. There were guidelines for using vegetables to compensate for a growing distaste for animal food, but there were also tips that carnivores could take to heart, such as saving bacon grease to use in the crust of meat pies.

Some lessons would be considered biting commentary today. Imitations of choice woods may serve ones needs, one book professed, but it is not thrifty to pay choice-wood prices for imitations. What would gourmet groceries make of the dictum that there is no connection between nutritive value and the price of food? And what is the admonition that paying more than one can afford is one of the weaknesses of installment buying if not a missile strike against modern capitalism?

These lessons were the compilation of centuries of trial and error, boom and bust, sickness and health, and formed the connective tissue between the family and society. The home was an institution, to be economically managed so that the best and most efficient citizens would be given to the community. The plainly titled 1913 textbook Shelter and Clothing let it be known exactly what was at stake: Upon the privacy and sanctity of the home rests the strength of democracy.

The laboratory for the home-making studies.

Housekeeping is becoming more and more a matter of science, and the laurels are bound to fall to the woman who conducts her household in a business-like way.

T he true economy of housekeeping is simply the art of gathering up all the fragments so that nothing is lost. This applies to fragments of both materials and time. (After all, time is money.) Nothing should be thrown away so long as it is possible to make any use of it, however trifling that use may be. And whatever be the size of the family, every member should be employed either in earning or saving money. The care of the home and the management of all household duties are in the homemakers hands. A house becomes a home when it is made a happy, healthful, restful, and attractive place in which to live. Isnt that what we all wish for?

Home economics teaches how to manage a house in such a way that money and income are wisely spent. It means learning to do the household work systematically and well. It means learning to entertain ones friends in a simple yet hospitable way, and to make home the happiest kind of place. Because, after all, the home is really the center of things.

Housekeeping of today takes its place among the professions. The modern woman plans, directs, and guides the work of the home. She grasps the responsibilities of her position, puts forth all her energy and ability in directing the home life as a business. Housekeeping is becoming more and more a matter of science, and the laurels are bound to fall to the woman who conducts her household in a business-like way.

Good home management includes the selection and care of all materials used in the home and the keeping of accurate household accounts. If one is ignorant of the right kind of food to eat, of the proper clothing to wear, of the best kind of sanitary conditions of ones house, of the laws of health, of simple pleasures and the ways of right living, how can one spend wisely the necessary money for these things in order to make the home a happy, healthful place? One of the most important features of good home management is a