Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
A Cultural History of Twin Beds (Home) 1st Edition
Purchase options and add-ons
A Cultural History of Twin Beds challenges our most ingrained assumptions about intimacy, sexuality, domesticity and hygiene by tracing the rise and fall of twin beds as a popular sleeping arrangement for married couples between 1870 and 1970. Modern preconceptions of the twin bed revolve around their use by couples who have no desire to sleep in the same bed space. Yet, for the best part of a century, twin beds were not only seen as acceptable but were championed as the sign of a modern and forward-thinking couple. But what lay behind this innovation? And why did so many married couples ultimately abandon the twin bed?In this book, Hilary Hinds presents a fascinating insight into the combination of beliefs and practices that made twin beds an ideal sleeping solution. Using nuanced close readings of marriage guidance and medical advice books, furnishing catalogues, novels, films and newspapers, this volume offers an accessible and rigorous account of the curious history of twin beds. This is vital reading for those with an interest in cultural history, sociology, anthropology and psychology.
- ISBN-100367784807
- ISBN-13978-0367784805
- Edition1st
- Publication dateMarch 31, 2021
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions6.14 x 0.67 x 9.21 inches
- Print length296 pages
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Delving through marriage guidance and medical advice books, furniture catalogues and novels, Lancaster University professor Hilary Hinds found that twin beds were initially adopted in the late 19th century as a health precaution. […] Hinds's book lays out how, by the 1930s, twin beds were commonplace in middle-class households. But by the 1940s, writes Hinds, 'they can occasion an unmistakable curl of the lip' and are 'no longer the preserve of the health-conscious forward-thinking middle classes'." – The Guardian
"Elegantly written and thoroughly researched, Hilary Hinds' fascinating book demonstrates the shifting role played by the twin bed in the histories of hygiene, consumer culture, sexuality and marriage. Hind reveals the twin bed to be a forgotten actor in late 19th- and 20th-century efforts to reimagine and reform domestic relations." – Garrett A. Sullivan Jr., Pennsylvania State University, USA
"Twins or double? Tucked away behind the neutral hotel-room options, Hilary Hinds uncovers a compellingly curious 20th-century cultural history. A fascinating story of changing domestic and marital values." – Rachel Bowlby, University College London, UK
"This fascinating cultural history offers fresh perspectives on public health, domestic hygiene, marital sexuality and even modernity itself." – Laura Doan, University of Manchester, UK
"Highly original in content and approach, A Cultural History of Twin Beds presents an exciting and novel historical story and sets up a good model for future studies of domestic objects." – Journal of British Studies
"Lancaster University professor Hilary Hinds explores couples’ bedtime habits in A Cultural History of Twin Beds […] She found that, up until the 1950s, the notion of sharing a bed was regarded as old-fashioned and unhealthy. More than half a century on in 2020, the opposite is true." – Vogue
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Routledge; 1st edition (March 31, 2021)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 296 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0367784807
- ISBN-13 : 978-0367784805
- Item Weight : 16 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.14 x 0.67 x 9.21 inches
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon