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Rating: 
Summary: Breath of fresh air!
Review: I'd like to "get something straight" as did the author of the first review. There happen to be more mothers staying at home, learning to be proud of the title, "homemaker" and finding joy in raising their families. Many women like myself have found that there is a great sense of self worth and satisfaction found in making our house a home for our loved ones. This book needs to be read by anyone who is confused about or ashamed of their longing to break free from society's image of what a "modern woman" should be. This book is a treasure and I'd give it more than 5 stars if I could.
Rating: 
Summary: More pictures, less text please
Review: The book itself is a lovely collection of images. Unfortunately, Tillotson spends too much time putting her misguided opinions into the text. Her revisionist history of the housewife is unnecessary and annoying.Tillotson writes as if the women's movement did a bad thing by making housework and housewifery look unrewarding. Let's get one thing straight: feminism didn't do that. Feminism gave women their voices to problems that ALREADY existed. Had there not been a problem, there wouldn't have been so many women willing to make something new of themselves besides just being a stay at home wife. Feminism only wanted women to be able to make the choice to stay at home or not. (This excludes the radical feminists who are a minority, but whose inflammatory comments were focused on more intently by the media than the more mainstream feminists.) The early issues of Ms. magazine, which people seem to think vilified housewives, are actually a housewife's biggest booster. It's somewhat alarming that Tillotson's revisionist history makes the era of the feminine mystique one that should be missed. It wasn't the idea of being a housewife, it was the images and ads like the one in this book that made women feel inadequate unless they were as happy and neat as in these beaming ads. Tillotson, that fine social critic, seems to see a resurgence of longing for that "simpler time" in arguments that have been disproved since Faludi's Backlash: "The trend once called cocooning was renamed "nesting" and continued to grow. So did, what some pundits called, "the domestic-bliss industry." Old-style home cooking was once again in vogue, a guilty pleasure loaded with carbohydrates, fat, and salt. The comforting accoutrements of the 1950s, such as Fiesta dinnerware and brightly colored aluminum tumblers, began appearing on store shelves once again." It should also be noted that Tillotson does not cite any sources for her examples. One would think the reappearance of Fiestware owes more to the kitsch angle than anybody equating it with a return of the housewife. Read this book for the fun pictures and laugh at the naivete that true bliss comes from a dishwasher; ignore the text and you'll have a good time.
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