The Progressive Era represented a tumultuous time for Americans as they attempted to come to terms with a rapidly emerging modern, urban, and industrial society, and ultimately the dislocations caused by World War I. Steven L. Piott's "Daily Life in the Progressive Era" tells the story of how all Americans--black and white, women and men, rural inhabitants and urban residents, workers and employers, consumers and producers--contended with new cultural attitudes, persistent racial and class tensions, and the power struggles of evolving classes.

This book provides a broad examination of...

The daily lives of most colonial New Englanders were much more colorful and exotic than the drab, pious picture many of us have in mind. Daily Life in Colonial New England exposes as myth much of what we might believe about this era and reveals surprising truths--for example, that sex was openly discussed in Colonial times and was regarded as a welcome necessity of married life, and that women had more legal and marital rights than they did in the 19th century.

The book describes topics such as the legal and sexual rights of women, the extent of infant mortality; the...