From Catharine Beecher to Martha Stewart: A Cultural History of Domestic Advice

Today’s domestic-advice writers — women such as Martha Stewart, Cheryl Mendelson, and B. Smith — are part of a long tradition, notes Sarah Leavitt. Their success rests on a legacy of literature that has focused on the home as an expression of ideals. Here, Leavitt crafts a fascinating genealogy of domestic advice, based on her readings of hundreds of manuals spanning 150 years of history.

Over the years, domestic advisors have educated women about everything from modernism and morality to sa...