At Home in the City: Urban Domesticity in American Literature and Culture, 1850-1930 (Becoming Modern: New Nineteenth-Century Studies)
“Beautifully written and illustrated...this book is a fascinating read from a promising young scholar.  Anyone interested in urban studies, American historical fiction, and architecture will be delighted.” —ChoiceKlimasmith “brings new insights into the lived experiences of urban dwellers, challenging both contemporary accounts as well as more recent scholarship.”—H-Urban"Klimasmith successfully guides readers through a literary and artistic terrain that enables us all to become more At Home in the City"—Studies in American Naturalism"Betsy Klimasmith's At Home in the City is a genuine pleasure to read. The narrative seamlessly moves from close readings of urban novels to discussions about architectural designs of tenements and boarding houses as well as of New York's Central Park. It analyzes the interiority of urban domestic fiction then literally and figuratively goes outside, to extra-literary sources. It is as if the very structure of the book confirms its central observation: the boundedness of the rural home gave way to an urban domesticity, where home is understood in terms of permeability, interconnectedness, and the fluidity of private and public spaces."—Journal of American History