The American Woman’s Home, by Catherine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, New York, 1869

The result of a collaboration by two of the era’s most important writers, this book was one of the most influential and popular handbooks of domestic advice of its time. It updates Catherine Beecher’s influential Treatise on Domestic Economy and incorporates writings by her famous sister (the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin) first published in "The Atlantic" magazine in the 1860’s.

The American Woman’s Home is a grand compendium of household advice, much of it based on scientific information of the day. In addition to the usual domestic subjects, there are sections on the workings of the body, first aid in case of drowning or a lightning strike, directions

for stitching up wounds, the propagation of plants, cultivation of fruit and the care of farm animals. Its most spirited and entertaining writing is in the area of cooking. In castigating the American taste for over-spiced "heavy sweets", the two sisters place the blame squarely on "our phlegmatic ancestors" the English. "Witness the national recipe for plum pudding. Take a pound of every indigestible substance you can think of, boil into a cannon-ball and serve in flaming brandy."