The American Family Home: 1800-1960 by Clifford Edward Clark Jr.

In the nineteenth century, architects and family reformers launched promotional campaigns portraying houses no longer as simply physical structures in which families lived but as emblems for family cohesiveness and identity. Clark explains why, despite the fear of standardization and homogenization, the middle class has persisted in viewing the single-family home as the main symbol of independence as as the distinguishing sign of having achieved middle-class status.

Clifford Edward Clark Jr., is M. A. and A. D. Hulings Professor of American Studies and professor of history at Carleton College. He is author of Henry Ward Beecher: Spokesman for a Middle-Class America.