本书是《万物简史》作者比尔•布莱森最新扛鼎之作，其创作灵感源自于作者一次石破天惊的发现：房屋不是躲避历史的避难所，而是历史的最终归宿。在作者看来，无论世界上发生了什么，不管人们发现了什么，创造了什么，或激烈争夺了什么，最终都会以这种或那种方式投射到你的家里。战争、饥荒、工业革命、启蒙运动……
这些看似与我们相距遥远的历史或许就隐藏在你的沙发里和五斗橱里、在你窗帘的皱褶里、在你松软的枕头里、在你家墙上的油漆里、在你家的自来水管道乃至抽水马桶里。于是，作者决定探究每间屋子在居家生活的演变过程中所起的作用。在作者的生花妙笔之下，卫生间是一部个人卫生的历史，厨房是一部烹调的历史，卧室则成了一部爱情、死亡和睡觉的历史。文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2214.html
作者还梳理了从建筑学到电力学，从考古学到园艺学，从食物贮藏到流行病，从香料贸易到埃菲尔铁塔，从女性时装到室内装潢等方面的演变脉络，撰写了一部包罗万象的人类居家生活简史。一部居家生活史就是人类不断追求舒适的历史，具有讽刺意味的是，如果为了过得舒适和快乐而无休止地索取，我们最终会制造出一个既不舒适又无快乐可言的世界。文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2214.html
作者以强烈的好奇心、超人的智慧、独具一格的文笔和娴熟的叙事方式将《万物简史》脍炙人口的风格延续到字里行间，成就了这部思想性与趣味性兼具的大作。文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2214.html
“Houses aren’t refuges from history. They are where history ends up.”文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2214.html
Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as he found it in that comfortable home. 文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2214.html
To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to “write a history of the world without leaving home.” The bathroom provides the occasion for a history of hygiene; the bedroom, sex, death, and sleep; the kitchen, nutrition and the spice trade; and so on, as Bryson shows how each has figured in the evolution of private life. Whatever happens in the world, he demonstrates, ends up in our house, in the paint and the pipes and the pillows and every item of furniture.文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2214.html
文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2214.html文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2214.html
