daily-life-detail books

[pico_the_great]

Little Details, I have a question that may or may not fit here. (If it doesn't, mods: please tell me!)

I have found what looks like an excellent book: China's Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty. This book is, essentially, a book of Little Details - it's got information about every tiny aspect of society, and answers all the sorts of

Comments

[sashatwen]

I've come across a similar book about Japan:

Everyday Things in Premodern Japan: The Hidden Legacy of Material Culture
by Susan B. Hanley

[carmarthen]

Can't help much with outside of Europe.

Daily Life in Elizabethan England, by Jeffrey L. Forgeng is great (the same author also wrote Daily Life in Medieval Europe and Daily Life in Chaucer's England) -- author is very knowledgeable, a reenactor, and a western martial artist.

(Anti rec: Everyday Life in the Middle Ages, by Sherrilyn Kenyon, is terrible and riddled with inaccuracies.)

I haven't read Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day, by Philip Matyszak, but his Legionary: The Roman Soldier's (Unofficial) Manual is excellent.

[linda_lupos]

Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day is quite good, and a fun read, too! I love the pretence of it being a Lonely Planet guide to Ancient Rome.
Helpful Latin guide in the back, too, in case you ever want to say 'does this tunica make me look fat?' in Latin.

[elmenora]

The Good Wife's Guide: A Medieval Household Book Basically a 14th century french instruction manual on how a woman should run the house and keep up appearances. Covers everything from managing servants to writing letters.

[kutsuwamushi]

A History of Private Life isn't so much about "little details" -- there are those, but it's more useful for blasting holes in the assumptions we make about how daily life should look and how people conceptualized the private sphere. It's readable, but long, probably suited for the deeply curious or those embarking on a big project rather than those who are writing a medieval fanfic AU just for fun.

There are several volumes, each focused on a particular time period of European history, so you can pick the one that is most useful.

[uozaki]

Don't know if this'll get seen much, but - I've used some of the books mentioned here and loved them. Is there anything similar that would overlap late 12th/early 13th century Mediterranean in general? *Not* focused on Italy, preferably.

[zydee]

(This response is for both Uozaki and the OP, so if something doesn't seem like it applies, just ignore it.)

Seconding the suggestion of the series A History of Private Life. It's not really a travelogue, but it's still invaluable.

Golden Age Greece: Courtesans and Fishcakes
Ancient Italy: Daily Life of the Etruscans
Japan: Everyday Life in Traditional Japan

Middle Ages:
Daily Life in Medieval Times (but really, anything by Gies & Gies is A+)
Daily Life in Medieval Times (different book, same title)
The Year 1000 (England)
Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error (14th-c Southern France).
Growing Up in Medieval London
Daily Living in the Twelfth Century (contemporarily-written account of a student's travels between England and France)

Elizabethan England:
A Compendium of Common Knowledge (TONS of details about nearly all aspects of life)
Shakespeare's England: Life in Elizabethan & Jacobean Times (another dream come true for details--all contemporary primary sources)

[uozaki]

Ah yeah, I love the Gieses. +1 to that.

For me this is all too eurocentric (unless the Private Life series covers more than it sounds like?), but for the OP it could be useful!

[transemacabre]

Try and see if you can find a translation of The Chronicle of The Morea (or, if you read French, Greek, Italian, or Aragonese, just read it in those!) which is about the Franks establishing themselves in the Peloponnesos after the Fourth Crusade.

Greek version: http://users.uoa.gr/~nektar/history/2romanity/to_xronikon_toy_morews.htm