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This Week’s Book Review – What We Did in Bed
I write a weekly book review for the Daily News of Galveston County. (It is not the biggest daily newspaper in Texas, but it is the oldest.) After my review appears on Sunday, I post the previous week’s review here on Sunday.
Book Review
‘What We Did in Bed’ a lighthearted look a history
By MARK LARDAS
Oct 27, 2019
“What We Did in Bed: A Horizontal History” by Brian Fagen and Nadia Durani, Yale University Press, 2019, 232 pages, $26
You get in bed each night and drop off to sleep. You probably never wonder about where your bed came from or how it evolved. Beds have history? Who knew?
“What We Did in Bed: A Horizontal History” by Brian Fagen and Nadia Durani show beds do indeed have a history and explores it thoroughly.
It turns out humans haven’t always slept in beds. This book reveals the bed — a dedicated place on the ground or floor for sleeping — emerged only after the introduction of fire. Before that, humans dossed down aloft, in trees. Doing otherwise made them meals for nighttime predators.
Fire kept these animals away. The practice of sleeping near the fire for warmth and safety soon developed. Dedicated beds followed almost immediately. These initial beds were similar to flower beds, shallow areas of worked-over soil, topped with a grass layer. The ancient bed was also where people ate; perhaps illustrating people haven’t changed in two million years.
Beds have since come up in the world, and Fagen and Durani follow their history. They show the evolution of the bed and the evolution of how we use the bed. Today, the bed is a private place, tucked into a back room of the house, rarely visited by any others than those that sleep in it.
Through most of history, until the middle of the 19th century, beds were a communal place. It was often in the main room of the house, and shared by the entire family. There was often a special best bed for honored guests. At inns, travelers shared beds, up to three or four to the bed.
The authors also show the various purposes beds have served. They were used for rest, but also as gathering places to exchange stories and gossip and a location to eat. Childbirth in bed is a recent phenomenon. Until the 19th century, most mothers gave birth in chairs or stools.
“What We Did in Bed” is lighthearted, but it’s also serious and well-researched history. It explains the whys behind beds in a way that informs while entertaining.
Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, amateur historian, and model-maker, lives in League City. His website is marklardas.com.
Published in History
Horizontal? You mean everyone doesn’t sleep while hanging from rafters?
You saw Der Fledermaus recently, did you?
Do they mention Viking bed-closets?
Yes, and Murphy beds and waterbeds.
Nope.
I had a docent/guide at Shakespeare’s house tell me that the phrase ‘sleep tight’ came from cranking the ropes that held up the ‘mattress’ taut.
He also pointed out how short the beds were and maintained that people slept sitting up because they had chronic chest congestion.
So TBA, how short were the beds? And weren’t people in the past much shorter than we are now?
In some cases yes, but when Shakespeare was writing his male countrymen averaged 5′ 7″. I could not find internet corroboration of the people-sleeping-sitting-up claim.
It is mentioned in the book.
Whatever the contents of the book, the title is unbeatable.
Sounds fascinating, I need to look it up. I love obscure and useless knowledge.
A trait we share.
How do they claim to know this? Primitive peoples didn’t leave literature or clear art. Modern tribes found in jungles generally have huts. Are you referring to hammocks (“in trees” but only a couple feet off the ground)?
And fire.
He’s talking millions, not hundreds of thousands, of years ago.
Needless to say (so I will say it), we know even less about prehistoric peoples than we do about peoples only 10,000 years ago. Aside from a few cave paintings (which could be either descriptive or imaginative), a few basic tools (which might or might not have been common/representative), and a handful of other relics — all subject to gross misinterpretation by false assumptions, of which archeologists specialize — we can only speculate about prehistoric societies.
But most of the book is probably on firmer ground. And that is very interesting. Thanks.
Modern Americans speak of “a right to privacy” which few people historically seem to have enjoyed. I wonder if children in those communal beds simply had to endure their parents having sex next to them.
I listened to an astronaut say the best sleep is floating in space. You don’t need a pillow, but can tie one to your head if it makes you feel better.
Eww.
They probably blew out the candles first so the kids wouldn’t see anything.
But they heard and the bed bounced. 😈
Modern ideas of privacy did not exist until the middle of the 19th century. Through at least the 17th century most groups shared the same room when sleeping because it was the only way to keep everyone warm. The kids almost certainly knew what was going on, and all the other adults in the room did. Back then it was considered part of life.
It didn’t bounce much, a mattress or padding was on a platform, or woven rope support. Springs not invented until 18th or 19th century. My grandparents had a bed that her father made for them, beautifully put together. (1902) I still have her feather mattress and it is still in superb condition. For a few weeks/months (don’t remember) we all slept in same bed, as it was freezing and they wouldn’t leave gas heaters on at night. (1949) As weather warmed, grandpa re-wove the ropes for the bed in another bedroom, then he and my brother sleep there.
https://www.thespruce.com/the-history-of-the-bed-4062296