Book ID: CBB007677129

The Vacuum Cleaner: A Cultural Investigation (2024)

unapi

This book offers an entertaining study of the facts and fantasies associated with the vacuum cleaner as it evolved from a luxury gimmick to a household necessity. The iconic appliance of twentieth-century domestic revolution, the vacuum cleaner stands at the forefront of radical changes in technology, automation, finance, marketing, hygiene, infrastructure, time-management, domestic labour, and the history of dirt. This appliance also insinuates itself into the dominant phobias of the period, including totalitarianism and nuclear war. Maud Ellmann shows how modern literature, art, and other media have transformed this humble domestic mod con into a curmudgeon, windbag, cannibal, vampire, dictator, infanticidal mother, freedom fighter, mantrap, and lothario.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB007677129/

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Authors & Contributors
Parr, Joy
Thorndahl, Jytte
Aldrich, Mark
Arnold, Michael
Oldenziel, Ruth
Scott, Peter
Journals
Cold War History
Technology and Culture
Agricultural History
Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry
American Quarterly
Business History Review
Publishers
Columbia University Press
Leuven University Press
Oxford University Press
University of Chicago Press
University of Minnesota Press
University of Toronto Press
Concepts
Household technology
Domestic space
Housework
Labor and Laborers, Household
Cultural history
Households
People
Khruschchev, Nikita Sergeyevich
Bulkeley, Gershom
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
20th century, late
21st century
16th century
17th century
Places
Canada
United States
Denmark
Chile
Soviet Union
Chicago (Illinois, U.S.)
Institutions
UNESCO
League of Nations
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