Spyderwort Press
HF Research Bibliography (Unabridged)
From Chapter 18, Bibliography & Research:
Here’s a relatively short list of random books on details of everyday life in past centuries—some from my own collection, or which have passed through my hands in my bookselling business, and many of which supplied facts mentioned in Medieval Underpants—to get you started in the library catalogue and give you an idea of the variety of research material that is out there.
Owing to their perpetual usefulness and popularity, many of these books have had multiple reprints from numerous publishers since their first publication, and/or have been issued by both British and American houses, so they can be found under an assortment of imprints. No publisher stated means that the book is now in the public domain in the USA, being first published before 1923, and many editions are available both new and used, or even as free, downloadable online texts or scans at Project Gutenberg, Google Books, and the like.
You are welcome to copy or print out the list below. You’ll find the unabridged list in the Third Edition eBook of Underpants but, for the sake of space, a significantly shortened list in the paperback. The most up-to-date list will always be here on this page.
(e) indicates that the book is also available as a fully formatted and proofread eBook for Kindle from any of various sources, including Amazon, Gutenberg.org, etc. (some free and some ridiculously overpriced, alas), and possibly for other e-readers.
General topics
Andersen, Christopher P. The Name Game. Simon & Schuster, 1977.
Apperson, G[eorge] L[atimer]. A Social History of Smoking. [In Britain only, from tobacco’s introduction in the 1590s to the early 20th century.] 1914. (e)
Ariès, Philippe, general editor. A History of Private Life series, 5 volumes: I: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium; II: Revelations of the Medieval World; III: Passions of the Renaissance; IV: From the Fires of Revolution to the Great War; V: Riddles of Identity in Modern Times. Harvard/Belknap Press, 1987–94.
Ariès, Philippe. The Hour of our Death: A Classic History of Western Attitudes Toward Death Over the Last One Thousand Years. Knopf, 1981.(e)
Brohaugh, Wiliam. English Through the Ages: From Old English to modern-day slang, a word-by-word birth record of thousands of interesting words. Writer's Digest Books, 1998.
Chancellor, E. Beresford. The Pleasure Haunts of London During Four Centuries. Houghton Mifflin, 1925.
Clark, David P. Germs, Genes, & Civilization: How Epidemics Shaped Who We Are Today. FT Press 2010,.(e)
Ehrlich, Blake. London on the Thames. Little, Brown, & Co, 1966. [Detailed neighborhood-by-neighborhood history and guide to London.]
Ehrlich, Blake. Paris on the Seine. Atheneum, 1962. [Detailed neighborhood-by-neighborhood history and guide to Paris.]
Flanders, Judith. The Making of Home: The 500-Year Story of How Our Houses Became Our Homes. Thomas Dunne, 2015. (e)
Girouard, Mark. Life in the English Country House. Penguin, 1980. [A study of the country house from the Middle Ages to the mid-20th century.]
Harrald, Chris, & Fletcher Watkins. The Cigarette Book: The History & Culture of Smoking. Skyhorse, 2010. (e)
Hartink, A. E. The Complete Encyclopedia of Antique Firearms: An Expert Guide to Firearms and Their Development. Hackberry Press, 2001.
Hogg, Ian V. Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World’s Firearms. A & W Publishers, 1980.
Kerrigan, Michael. The History of Death: Burial Customs and Funeral Rites From the Ancient World to Modern Times. Lyons Press/Globe Pequot Press, 2007.
Kiple, Kenneth F., ed. Plague, Pox, & Pestilence: Disease in History. Barnes & Noble Books, 1997. [26 articles on epidemics throughout history.]
Lofts, Norah. Domestic Life in England. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976. [Home life and the "woman’s sphere" from about 1200 to the 1970s]
Panati, Charles. Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things. Morrow, 1989. [Panati has written several other useful books about common things and ideas] (e)
Post, Emily. Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home. Originally published 1922. (e)
Quennell, Marjorie & C.H.B. A History of Everyday Things in England: [Five volumes] Part 1: 1066–1499. Part 2: 1500–1799. Part 3: 1733–1851. Part 4: 1851–1914. Part 5: [by S.E. Ellacott] 1914–1968. Volume 1 originally published 1918; many editions and reprints.
Readers Digest editors. Everyday Life Through the Ages. Readers Digest Association Ltd., 1992.
Readers Digest editors. How Was it Done? The Story of Human Ingenuity Through the Ages. Readers Digest Association Ltd., 1995.
Smith, Elsdon C. Treasury of Name Lore. Harper & Row, 1967.
Taylor, G. Rattray. Sex in History: The story of society’s changing attitudes to sex throughout the ages. Vanguard, 1954.
Usher, Abbott P. A History of Mechanical Inventions. 1929 and various revised editions. (e)
General: Food topics
Ball, Krista D. What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank. Tyche Books, 2012. [Keeping heroic fantasy fiction anchored in historically realistic daily life, specifically in matters of food (how do you catch, cook, and/or preserve the provisions you’re taking along on your quest for the Magic Whatsit when you live in a preindustrial society?); excellent for authors of historical adventure, too.] (e)
DeWitt, Dave, & Nancy Gerlach. The Whole Chile Pepper Book. Little, Brown & Co., 1990.
Fletcher, Nichola. Charlemagne’s Tablecloth: A Piquant History of Feasting. St. Martin’s Press 2004. (e)
Foster, Nelson, & Linda S. Cordell. Chilies to Chocolate: Food the Americas Gave the World. University of Arizona Press, 1992.
Jacobs, Marc, & Peter Scholliers. Eating Out in Europe: Picnics, Gourmet Dining, & Snacks since the Late Eighteenth Century. Berg, 2003.
Prentice, E. Parmalee. Hunger and History: The influence of hunger on human history. Caxton, 1951. [History of food production, famines, & the results throughout history since ancient times; also some background on dining customs, table manners, etc.]
Wilson, Bee. Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat. Basic Books, 2012. (e)
Ancient/classical world, prehistory,
Iron Age Europe, to about 400 CE
Early Medieval Europe & Christian World, 400 - 1000
Bibby, Geoffrey. The Testimony of the Spade: Life in Northern Europe from 15,000 B.C. to the time of the Vikings. Knopf, 1956. [An exploration of many famous archaeological finds in Europe: Lascaux, Sutton Hoo, bog bodies, etc.]
Kenyon, Sherrilyn. The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the Middle Ages: The British Isles from 500 to 1500. Writers Digest Books, 1995. (e)
Lacey, Robert, & Danny Danziger. The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of the first millennium-An Englishman’s world. Little, Brown & Co., 1999.
Riché, Pierre. Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne. University of Philadelphia Press, 1978.
Taylor, Christopher. Village and Farmstead: A History of Rural Settlement in England. Sheridan House, 1983. [Prehistoric, Roman-era, and medieval settlement]
Time-Life Books editors. What Life Was Like Amid Splendor and Intrigue: Byzantine Empire, AD 330–1453. Time-Life Books, 1998.
Time-Life Books editors. What Life Was Like Among Druids and High Kings: Celtic Ireland, AD 400–1200. Time-Life Books, 1998.
Time-Life Books editors. What Life Was Like In the Age of Chivalry: Medieval Europe, AD 800–1500. Time-Life Books, 1997.
Time-Life Books editors. What Life Was Like When Longships Sailed: Vikings, AD 800–1100. Time-Life Books, 1998.
Veyne, Paul. A History of Private Life: I: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium. Harvard/Belknap, 1987.
Asia, Middle East, Africa, to Early Modern era
Auboyer, Jeannine. Daily Life in Ancient India: From Approximately 200 BC to 700 AD. Macmillan, 1968.
Belandier, Georges. Daily Life in the Kingdom of the Kongo From the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century. Meridian, 1969.
Fréderic, Louis. Daily Life in Japan At the Time of the Samurai, 1185–1603. Praeger, 1972. (e)
Gernet, Jacques. Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250–1276. Macmillan, 1962.
Lane, George. Daily Life in the Mongol Empire. Hackett, 2009.
Lindsay, James E. Daily Life in the Medieval Islamic World. Hackett, 2008. (e)
Time-Life Books editors. What Life Was Like Among Samurai and Shoguns: Japan, AD 1000–1700. Time-Life Books, 1999.
Time-Life Books editors. What Life Was Like in the Jewel in the Crown: British India, AD 1600–1905. Time-Life Books, 1999.
Time-Life Books editors. What Life Was Like in the Lands of the Prophet: Islamic World, AD 570–1405. Time-Life Books, 1999.
Medieval Europe, 1000 – 1400
Burke, John. Life in the Castle in Medieval England. British Heritage, 1986.
Cantor, Norman F. The Civilization of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of “Medieval History, The Life and Death of a Civilization.” HarperCollins, 1993.
Cantor, Norman F., ed. The Medieval Reader: Firsthand accounts of the Middle Ages, including letters, essays, state and church documents, poetry, and ballads. HarperCollins, 1994.
Davis, William Stearns. Life on a Mediaeval Barony: A Picture of a Typical Feudal Community in the Thirteenth Century. Harper & Bros, 1923.(e)
DiPastena, Joyce. Name Your Medieval Character: Medieval Christian Names (12th-13th Centuries). Sable Tyger Books 2013.(e)
Duby, Georges. A History of Private Life: II: Revelations of the Medieval World. Harvard/Belknap, 1993.
Evans, Joan. Life in Medieval France. Phaidon, 1969.
Gies, Joseph & Frances. Life in a Medieval Castle. Harper & Row, 1974. [The Gies have written at least half a dozen other books on medieval life.] (e)
Gies, Joseph & Frances. Marriage and Family in the Middle Ages. Harper & Row, 1987.
Hartley, Dorothy. Lost Country Life. Pantheon, 1979. [“How English country folk lived, worked, threshed, thatched, rolled fleece, milled corn, brewed mead...” English agricultural life from the Middle Ages until the early 1600s]
Kenyon, Sherrilyn. The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the Middle Ages: The British Isles from 500 to 1500. Writers Digest Books, 1995. (e)
Lacroix, Paul (a.k.a. “Bibliophile Jacob”). Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period (also reprinted as Medieval Life: Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages). First published 1870s. (e)
Lofts, Norah. Domestic Life in England. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976. [Home life and the "woman’s sphere" from about 1200 to the 1970s]
Mortimer, Ian. The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century. Touchstone 2009. (e)
Newman, Paul B. Daily Life in the Middle Ages. McFarland, 2001. (e)
Taylor, Christopher. Village and Farmstead: A History of Rural Settlement in England. Sheridan House, 1983. [Prehistoric, Roman-era, and medieval settlement]
Time-Life Books editors. What Life Was Like Amid Splendor and Intrigue: Byzantine Empire, AD 330–1453. Time-Life Books, 1998.
Time-Life Books editors. What Life Was Like Among Druids and High Kings: Celtic Ireland, AD 400–1200. Time-Life Books, 1998.
Time-Life Books editors. What Life Was Like In the Age of Chivalry: Medieval Europe, AD 800–1500. Time-Life Books, 1997.
Vaughan, Richard, trans. & ed. The Illustrated Chronicles of Matthew Paris: Observations of Thirteenth-Century Life. Allan Sutton, 1993.
Warner, Philip. The Medieval Castle: Life in a Fortress in Peace and War. Barnes & Noble Books, 1993, reprint of 1971 ed.
Pre-Columbian Americas, to 1500
Baudin, Louis. Daily Life in Peru under the Last Incas. Macmillan, 1962.
Carrasco, David, & Scott Sessions. Daily Life of the Aztecs: People of the Sun and Earth. Hackett, 2008.(e)
Disselhoff, Hans Dietrich. Daily Life in Ancient Peru. McGraw-Hill, 1967.
Malpass, Michael A. Daily Life in the Inca Empire. Hackett, 2008. (e)
Sharer, Robert J. Daily Life in Maya Civilization. Greenwood, 2009. (e)
Soustelle, Jacques. Daily Life of the Aztecs. Phoenix, 2002.
Renaissance Europe, Tudor era,
Reformation, Age of Exploration, 1400 - 1600
Burton, Elizabeth. The Pageant of Early Tudor England, 1485–1558. Scribners, 1967.
Burton, Elizabeth. The Pageant of Elizabethan England. Macmillan, 1958.
Buxton, John. Elizabethan Taste: Architecture, Painting, Sculpture, Music, and Literature of the Elizabethan Age. Macmillan, 1963.
Chamberlin, E.R. Everyday Life in Renaissance Times. Capricorn, 1967.
Chartier, Roger. A History of Private Life: III: Passions of the Renaissance. Harvard/Belknap, 1989.
Defourneaux, Marcelin. Daily Life in Spain in the Golden Age. Stanford, 1971. [1550s-1660s]
Emerson, Kathy Lynn. The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in Renaissance England. Writer’s Digest Books 1996. (e)
Erlanger, Philippe. The Age of Courts and Kings: Manners and Morals, 1558–1715. Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1967.
Hartley, Dorothy. Lost Country Life. Pantheon, 1979. [“How English country folk lived, worked, threshed, thatched, rolled fleece, milled corn, brewed mead...” English agricultural life from the Middle Ages until the early 1600s]
Hole, Christina. English Home-Life 1500 to 1800. Batsford, 1949.
Holme, Bryan. Princely Feasts and Festivals: Five Centuries of Pageantry and Spectacle. Thames and Hudson, 1988. [Lavish European public ceremonial from the end of the Middle Ages to the early 19th century.]
Lacroix, Paul (a.k.a. “Bibliophile Jacob”). Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period (also reprinted as Medieval Life: Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages). First published 1870s. (e)
Lofts, Norah. Domestic Life in England. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976. [Home life and the "woman’s sphere" from about 1200 to the 1970s]
Lucas-Dubreton, Jean. Daily life in Florence in the time of the Medici. George Allen & Unwin, 1960.
Mortimer, Ian. The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England. Penguin 2013. (e)
Mountfield, David. Everyday Life in Elizabethan England. Editions Minerva, 1978.
Perez-Mallaina, Pablo E. Spain’s Men of the Sea: Daily Life on the Indies Fleets in the Sixteenth Century. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.
Picard, Liza. Elizabeth’s London: Everyday Life in Elizabethan London. St. Martin's Griffin, 2005.
Scheer, Teva J. Our Daily Bread: German Village Life 1500–1850. CreateSpace, 2010. (e)
Time-Life Books editors. What Life Was Like at the Rebirth of Genius: Renaissance Italy, AD 1400–1550. Time-Life Books, 1999.
Time-Life Books editors. What Life Was Like in Europe’s Golden Age: Northern Europe, AD 1500–1675. Time-Life Books, 1999.
Time-Life Books editors. What Life Was Like in the Realm of Elizabeth: England, AD 1533–1603. Time-Life Books, 1998.
Wilson, Laura. Daily Life in a Tudor House. Heinemann Library, 1996.
Early Modern, 17th-century Europe, 1600 - 1715
Colonial & Revolutionary North America, 1607 - 1790
Bernier, Olivier. Pleasure and Privilege: Life in France, Naples, and America, 1770–1790. Doubleday, 1981.
Earle, Alice Morse. Child Life in Colonial Days. Macmillan, 1899. [American childhood in the 17th and 18th centuries. Also published as Child Life in Colonial Times. Earle wrote many other books on colonial New England.] (e)
Earle, Alice Morse. Curious Punishments of Bygone Days. H.S. Stone, 1896. [Public chastisement in early colonial America] (e)
Earle, Alice Morse. Customs and Fashions in Old New England. Scribners, 1893.(e)
Earle, Alice Morse. Home Life in Colonial Days. Macmillan, 1898. (e)
Earle, Alice Morse. Stage-Coach and Tavern Days. Macmillan, 1900. (e)
Earle, Alice Morse. Two Centuries of Costume in America, 1620–1820. Macmillan, 1903. [2 volumes] (e)
Lowens, Irving. Music and Musicians in Early America. Norton, 1964.
Mauldin, Bill. Mud & Guts: A look at the common soldier of the American Revolution. Published on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the encampment at Valley Forge. US Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, 1978. [booklet]
Randel, William Peirce. The American Revolution: Mirror of a People. Rutledge, 1973. [Daily lives and attitudes of Americans of the 1770s]
Taylor, Dale. Everyday Life in Colonial America. Writers Digest Books, 1999.
Enlightenment, 18th-century Europe, 1715 - 1789
American early republic, frontier,
1790 to mid/late 19th century
Chastain, Zachary; McIntosh, Kenneth; Strange, Matthew et al. Daily Life in America in the 1800s series. Mason Crest Publishers 2009–14. [16 short books on various topics] (e)
Dunlop, M.H. Sixty Miles from Contentment: Traveling the Nineteenth-Century American Interior. Basic, 1995.
Earle, Alice Morse. Two Centuries of Costume in America, 1620–1820. Macmillan, 1903. [2 volumes] (e)
Langdon, William Chauncy. Everyday Things in American Life: 1776–1876. Scribners, 1969.
Larkin, Jack. The Reshaping of Everyday Life: 1790–1840. Harper & Row, 1988. [America and Americans in the first decades of the republic] (e)
McCutcheon, Marc. The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s. Writer’s Digest Books, 1993. [19th-century America]
Varhola, Michael J. Everyday Life During the [U.S.] Civil War. Writer’s Digest Books, 1999.
Vyvey Moulton, Candy. The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the Wild West from 1840–1900. Writer’s Digest Books 1999.
Vyvey Moulton, Candy. Everyday Life Among the American Indians: 1800 to 1900. Writer’s Digest Books, 2001.
Europe, Industrial Revolution, Age of Revolution, 1789 - 1914
Modern era, 1914 – 1970-ish
Ellacott, S.E., based on previous series by Quennell, Marjorie & C.H.B. A History of Everyday Things in England: Part 5: 1914–1968. Batsford, 1968.
Engelmann, Bernt. In Hitler’s Germany: Everyday Life in the Third Reich. Pantheon, 1986.
Friedrich, Otto. Before the Deluge: A portrait of Berlin in the 1920s. Harper & Row, 1972.
Karnow, Stanley. Paris in the Fifties. Times Books, 1997. (e)
Kyvig, David E. Daily Life in the United States, 1920–1940: How Americans Lived Through the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression. Ivan R. Dee, 2004. [Also published as Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1939: Decades of Promise and Pain] (e)
Lofts, Norah. Domestic Life in England. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976. [Home life and the "woman’s sphere" from about 1200 to the 1970s]
Martin, Benjamin F. France in 1938. Louisiana State, 2005. [People, everyday life, culture, and politics of a pivotal year]
McCutcheon, Marc. The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life from Prohibition Through World War II. Writers Digest Books, 1995. [20th-century America]
McPhail, Helen. The Long Silence: Civilian Life Under the Occupation of Northern France 1914–1918. I.B. Tauris, 1999. [Reprinted in 2014 under the title The Long Silence: The Tragedy of Occupied France in World War I.]
Pakenham, Valerie. Out in the Noonday Sun: Edwardians in the Tropics. Random House, 1985.
Prost, Antoine. A History of Private Life: V: Riddles of Identity in Modern Times. Harvard/Belknap, 1998.
Waller, Maureen. London 1945: Life in the Debris of War. Macmillan, 2013. (e)
Feel free to send me title information for your favorite historical research books and I will add them to the list.