I recently read "How to be a Victorian" by Ruth Goodman. Pretty interesting book, I would recommend. There's a TV show she did as well that's interesting, if you can find it.
I like that she focuses on the daily life of the average person of the time. She delves fairly deeply into specific information about the things that were important to people. She goes into clothing, medicine, food, tools, even building and farming technique.
She does NOT focus on politics, the lives of politicians, wars, assassinations, famous people, rich people,………… Except where those kinds of things directly impacted the lives of the average Joe.
The only issue is, my interest isn't really in England. My interest is in 17th, 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries in the average U.S. home. Most of what I find when I search for related books has to do with the life of this or that politician or famous person.
I'd love to find more that are just like this one, but with the focus on the other side of the pond.
On a side note, if anyone is aware of any repository of merchant catalogues from those time periods, I'd be very interested in finding it. I've found a number of Sears and Montgomery Ward and several things from InternetArchive. I would like to find Montgomery Wards smaller catalogues for various departments, and older stuff from before the big national guys started taking over.
Thanks for any help!
by BitterEVP1