Review by Choice Review
The subtitle is misleading, but that hardly matters in this fine study of the production of certain classes of goods in the early national period, focusing primarily on New England. Jaffee (Bard Graduate Center) interweaves the histories of artisanal production of clocks, paintings, chairs, globes, and books in the context of the growth of a rural middle class from the Revolution to the mid-19th century. Tracing the fortunes of itinerant painters, inventors, and small-town manufacturers, he provides a sophisticated portrait of the transition from imported luxury items to factory mass production. During those years, the foundations were laid by entrepreneurs who used networks of local labor to produce interchangeable parts for wooden clocks, chairs, and other symbols of upward mobility, while peddlers formed the distribution network for a growing nation. Printers and painters brought a new aesthetic and new sense of the world to rural residents. Jaffee's presentation is not a linear narrative. He includes various threads of his story in each chapter to reflect the interactions of industries often examined separately and arrives at a more nuanced picture of the period. Illustrations are excellent, and notes are copious. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All history and decorative arts collections, all levels. J. C. Wanser Hiram College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
