LAUSR

The book’s middle chapters are the strongest sections of the book. Chapters Three and Four effectively grapple with the disconnect between the ideal and the lived reality of home and domesticity. Moreover, these chapters demonstrate the ways in which understandings of the home were crucial to the development of the American republic and how ideas surrounding the home and private sphere could be manipulated to serve various, and at times, competing public sphere sociopolitical agendas. These chapters are also particularly attuned to the ways in which race and class could cause variations and divergences in the lived experience of home. While Richter offers a rich overarching framework to explore a diverse set of issues surrounding the home, she does leave a few key themes undeveloped. The volume broaches the issue of Native Americans’ homes, but only includes three sources directly relevant to this subject. This is a missed opportunity to complement recent work in gender and Native American history, such as Barbara Krauthamer’s, Black Slaves, Indian Masters: Slavery, Emancipation, and Citizenship in the Native American South. Furthermore, considering the indelible impact the American Civil War had on homes north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line, east and west of the Mississippi River, this collection only offers one document from the Civil War years (1861–65). Again, this is a missed opportunity to explore the complex connections between home and (forced and unforced) movement in the context of a war-torn society. Developing these areas would have made this work an important contribution to the fields of Native American and Civil War studies. This collection will be especially valuable to undergraduate students. Each chapter provides a concise introduction outlining the significance of the following primary sources and each primary source is accompanied by a short description of its relevant sociohistorical context. Furthermore, a diverse selection of sources is presented in each chapter, including excerpts from first-person narratives, newspaper articles, and literary works. It is particularly impressive in its assembly of lesser-known visual sources, with over 35 architectural designs, illustrations, and advertisements accompanying the literary sources. Richter also usefully provides an extensive secondary reading list categorized by theme to conclude her volume. As such, this work is easily adaptable to undergraduate American history and gender studies syllabi. At Home in Nineteenth-Century America provides a nuanced thematic device to examine the public and private spheres, the growth of a market economy, and changing domestic ideals. This work is a significant contribution to both American history and gender studies, and it is a particularly valuable resource for the undergraduate classroom.