Home improvement has a history too

This review on EH.net by economist Kenneth Snowden alerted me to the existence of a history of the business of home improvement in the 20th century. If your people owned or built or fixed up their own house, this book may help show what kind of patterns they were a part of, and perhaps some other angles at "house history" as well. (Be advised that I have only read the review so far!) Check out other economic history reviews while you're at it.


Richard Harris, Building a Market: The Rise of the Home Improvement Industry, 1914-1960.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.


Harold Henderson, "Home improvement has a history too," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 24 June 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]