Shari Larsen's Reviews > Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth-Century to Modern Times

This book explores the culture of domestic service workers in Britain, from around the 1890s through the 1960s, and the families that employed them, and how the two world wars affected those occupations. The author details the work of cooks, parlor maids, footmen, scullery maids, butlers, etc, through interviews with former domestic workers, and through letters and diaries.


This was a very interesting read, and I really enjoyed it, though there were 2 or 3 chapters that to me, seemed a little too bogged down with repetitious details, but overall, this is a great book both for history lovers, and those that enjoy historical fiction and just want to learn more about the lives of servants. I really enjoyed the many interesting stories that the workers themselves had to tell about their employers.