Product Description

The past has left behind only scattered clues that, on their own, provide little insight into how the people of early America lived and the details of their daily lives. The photographs in this book, the deeply informed narrative that accompanies them, and the eyewitness accounts of daily life that the author weaves throughout, provide a fresh perspective on our early American ancestors and the places they called home. This book is about how their houses and their life in them, from the wealthy to the impoverished, from New York City to the small farms and plantations of the South, from coastal fishing towns to the Western frontier of Indiana and Kentucky. The stories focus on the remarkably vivid differences from one part of the country to the next, class and culture, and the realities of everyday life for American families. These stories twine around a wide selection of HABS photographs of early houses, covering the variety and evolutions of house styles -- not by labeling the style but by explaining the style in the context of everyday life.

Richly illustrated with handsome black-and-white photography of old houses from the Library of Congress Historic American Building Survey (HABS) collection and supplemented with period woodcuts, engravings, drawings, paintings, artifacts, and maps, the book is printed on a 4-color press for a depth of tone. Sidebar excerpts from diaries, journals, and letters inject graphic eyewitness descriptions, adding an additional layer of insight. The book also includes sidebars called Still Standing that traces the history of specific houses, from their origins to the present and includes information on the original family, how the house has evolved over the centuries, and how it's used today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #530098 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-21
• Released on: 2006-11-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Review
In his new book, Larkin revisits the architecture of America from 1775 to 1840 and finds the values and dreams of the young republic recorded in wood and stone. Illustrated with amazing photographs from the Library of Congress Historic American Building Survey, the book opens a window on a time before indoor plumbing and electricity, discovering that the good old days, in some ways, were pretty good after all, despite physical hardships. --Kevin Markey, USA Weekend

About the Author
Jack Larkin is the Museum Scholar and Chief Historian at Old Sturbridge Village, reporting directly to the President and responsible for major research and writing projects, the museum's overall interpretation of historical content through exhibits and programs, and its relationships with the scholarly community. He is also Affiliate Professor of History at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, where he teaches "Explorations in History: New England in the Nineteenth Century." In the fall of 2005 he will teach the American Studies Seminar at the American Antiquarian Society, on "Childhoods Real and Imagined: New England 1790-1860." Between 1992 and 2003 he was Director of Research, Collections and Library, managing the museum's activities in these areas. Prior to that he was Chief Historian in the Research Department from 1982-1992 and Research Historian from 1976-82.

He is currently the project director of "Back to Our Roots: Interpreting New England Agriculture and Rural Life for a New Century" funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Customer Reviews

Where We Lived-much more than architecture!
This is an important new work on the American home for the historian, teacher, and architecture buff. Written for the lay person in mind, Mr. Larkin does a fantastic job covering the American home from 1775-1840. The author used many sharp black and white photos from the Historic American Buildings Survey and keen journal/diary entries from American and European travelers to create a narrative that is heavy in primary sources that dovetail with the photography. The book is not a heavy architectural treatise, but written for the average American home enthusiast. Mr. Larkin divided the book into three sections: New England, Middle, and Southern states. As a teacher, I feel the book is very important in transferring rich primary sources via the journal entries and material culture info not ususally found in narrative or university press histories. The book offers some great views of homes that have long gone under the wrecking ball or just fell into disrepair and were torn down. The HABS survey photographs were all taken in the 1930's and for those not familiar they are a rich source. Mr. Larkin's work truly meets the dustjacket's detailed description. A first rate photographic history of the American home from 1775-1840.

Compare these with What we Build Today
The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) was one of the make work projects of the depression era designed to give employment to out of work architects, draftsmen and photographers. With an office in each state, they documented thousands of houses, public buildings and other structures dating from the earliest they could find to about Civil War time. HABS produced a wealth of information about the way Americans lived in their early days. It has proven so helpful that it was restarted after World War II and again revitalized recently.

This book is largely composed of photographs taken by the HABS people combined with an excellent story line by John Larkin, chief historian at Old Sturbridge Village. He has found numerous reports written by people actually living in these buildings at the time, and quotes or summarizes their views.

I was struck at the small size of the houses, as I am when I see them in parks or abandoned towns (common out here in the west), and the large number of people that lived in them.

It's a most interesting look at houses when compared to what we are building today where four people have eight rooms and three car garages.

Forgotten slice of Americana is brought to life by Jack Larkin.
For the many of us who have a disconnect between life today and life as it was lived in years past, Discovering the Places we Once Called Home is a must read. Jack Larkin very ably takes us back in history in a most intimate way and allows us to witness the homestead of our grandparents with the hardships of daily living without modern conveniences. The photographs and commentary are testament to diligent research and scholarship by the author and I am left with wanting more.