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Virtual Event – Danielle Dreilinger
May 9, 2021 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Magic City Books proudly welcomes Danielle Dreilinger, author of The Secret History of Home Economics for a special Mother’s Day virtual event at 2:00 pm CDT on Sunday, May 9.
The Secret History of Home Economics is a groundbreaking and engaging history that restores a denigrated subject to its rightful importance, as it reminds us that everyone should learn how to cook a meal, balance their account, and fight for a better world.
This free event will be hosted on the Zoom platform and Facebook Live. To register in advance for the event on Zoom visit: https://magiccitybooks.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nJVNEKeuTn68cePzk0LG-A.
After registering you will receive a confirmation email with details on how to join the event at 2:00 pm CT on Sunday May 9.
The Secret of Home Economics is available now, to order a copy visit Magic City Books in person or online here: https://magiccitybooks.square.site/product/the-secret-history-of-home-economics/483.
About The Secret History of Home Economics
The term “home economics” may conjure traumatic memories of lopsided hand-sewn pillows or sunken muffins. But common conception obscures the story of the revolutionary science of better living. The field exploded opportunities for women in the twentieth century by reducing domestic work and providing jobs as professors, engineers, chemists, and businesspeople. And it has something to teach us today.
In the surprising, often fiercely feminist and always fascinating The Secret History of Home Economics, Danielle Dreilinger traces the field’s history from Black colleges to Eleanor Roosevelt to Okinawa, from a Betty Crocker brigade to DIY techies. These women–and they were mostly women–became chemists and marketers, studied nutrition, health, and exercise, tested parachutes, created astronaut food, and took bold steps in childhood development and education.
Home economics followed the currents of American culture even as it shaped them. Dreilinger brings forward the racism within the movement along with the strides taken by women of color who were influential leaders and innovators. She also looks at the personal lives of home economics’ women, as they chose to be single, share lives with other women, or try for egalitarian marriages.
This groundbreaking and engaging history restores a denigrated subject to its rightful importance, as it reminds us that everyone should learn how to cook a meal, balance their account, and fight for a better world.
Danielle Dreilinger is a former New Orleans Times-Picayune education reporter and a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow. She also wrote for the Boston Globe and worked at the Boston NPR station WGBH. She lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.
