No Place Like Home: A Survey of American Home Economics History

Abstract

The history of home economics covers a wide range of topics and issues, most of which are strikingly relevant both to everyday lived experience and to other topics studied by historians. Historians of home economics write about rural life, nutrition, interior space, consumer society, education, human development, marriage, gender, social control, and institutional management, among many other subjects. I argue that understanding home economics is a good way to understand much of contemporary mainstream culture as it shapes and is shaped by anything having to do with topics traditionally associated with the home. This article identifies the major works in the field since the 1990s, when scholars outside of home economics began to write the history of the field. It also draws attention to contemporary trends in writing about home economics history and suggests important avenues for research while also acknowledging challenges that scholars in the field face.