During the 19th century the home, as both a cultural construct and a set of lived practices, became more powerful in the Western world than ever before. The West saw an unprecedented period of imperial expansion, industrialisation and commercialization that transformed both where and how people made their homes. Scientific advances and increasing mass production also changed homes materially, bringing in domestic technologies and new goods. This volume explores how homes and homemaking were imagined and practiced across the globe in the 19th century. For instance, not only did the acquisition of empires lead to the establishment of Western European homes in new terrains, but it also buttressed the way in which Europeans saw themselves, as the guardians of superior cultures, patriarchal relationships and living practices. During this period a powerful shared cultural idea of home emerged - championed by a growing urban middle class - that constructed home as a refuge from a chaotic and
