The Editors:
As the author of Domestic Culture in Early Modern England (Rochester, 2015), I do not pretend that my study is without limitations and welcome constructive comment, even where critical. However, some elements of the review by Jane Whittle in The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, XLVII (2017), 415–416, I found puzzling.
Firstly, Whittle describes the theoretical discussion in the introduction as a “dizzying tour.” Although the evidential core of the study concerns the daily activities and social relationships of the non-elite early modern household, it seemed worthwhile at the outset to discuss the nature of domestic life and its optimum interpretation, given that it consists of overlapping and interrelated elements of structure and space, material culture and activities, social relationships, affections, and values. Arguably, to comprehend one element fully requires an understanding of its relationship to the whole, and vice versa. The theoretical discussion tended toward structuralist perspectives, viewing...