More Work for Mother : The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave

This book has a dual focus. As its title is meant to suggest, it is a history not just of housework but also of the tools with which that work is done: household technology. Human beings are tool-using animals; indeed, some anthropologists believe that, along with speech, , the ability to use and to refine our tools is precisely what sets us apart from other species of primates.

Ruth Schwartz Cowan is associate professor of history at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.