I’ve always been a bit of a history nerd (to the point where I accidentally minored in it in college, but that’s a story for another day). One of my favorite eras to learn about has always been WWII and the postwar years. It really was a different world in terms of fashion, society, gender roles, and so much more. Women were largely expected to run the household on their own while their husbands worked, which sounds incredibly daunting. Luckily for them, they had Ann Hathaway’s bestselling 1940s domestic guide, The Homecraft Book. In some situations useful, yet in other areas hilariously outdated, this book is the perfect entertainment for any historian.

Starting off with a witty introduction written by Hathaway’s grandson, he reminds readers to err on the side of caution when choosing which methods from his grandmother’s guide can still be used today.

It’s crazy to see how much emphasis was placed on a housewife’s chores and duties back in the day. Frankly, a lot of the chores seem superfluous, and it feels like some of these things women were expected to do were simply ways to pass the time (if there was any time leftover after the actual necessities of running a household were taken care of). It’s also a bit frightening to see how certain chemicals were used in the past that we now know much more about, and how unsafe many standard practices turned out to be.

I’ve always loved the aesthetic side of the era, with its great music and beautiful styles, but this book – along with many other societal norms of the time – makes me increasingly grateful to have been born when I was. Of course, it’ll be interesting to see what someone sixty years in the future thinks of our modern society. I’m sure it’ll make us look just as uninformed in certain areas.

That said, some of the things taught in this book are still genuinely useful, but like Ann’s grandson says: use your discernment.

This book is under 200 pages, so it makes for an easy day read, and it’s available on Kindle Unlimited (and we all know how much I love Kindle Unlimited). If you’re curious about the world your grandparents or great-grandparents lived in, this is a fascinating read.