Audio only
Length6h 46m
About this audiobook
Pulling back the covers on the fascinating, yet often forgotten, history of the bed
Louis XIV ruled France from his bedchamber. Winston Churchill governed Britain from his during World War II. Travelers routinely used to bed down with complete strangers, and whole families shared beds in many preindustrial households. Beds were expensive items—and often for show. Tutankhamun was buried on a golden bed, wealthy Greeks were sent to the afterlife on dining beds, and deceased middle-class Victorians were propped up on beds in their parlors.
In this sweeping social history that covers the past seventy thousand years, Brian Fagan and Nadia Durrani look at the endlessly varied role of the bed through time. This was a place for sex, death, childbirth, storytelling, and sociability as well as sleeping. But who did what with whom, why, and how could vary incredibly depending on the time and place. It is only in the modern era that the bed has transformed into a private, hidden zone, and its rich social history has largely been forgotten.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.7 (371)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, StoryGraph, LibraryThing
GenreHistory
Length6 hrs 46 mins
Narrated byMichael Langan
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateAug 6, 2022
LanguageEnglish
More from Brian Fagan, Nadia Durrani
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m4.6 (6.6K)$29 · $0.00
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m4.7 (8.9K)$46 · $0.00
Pearl of Great PriceJoseph Smith3h 8m4.7 (7.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m4.6 (2.6K)$29 · $0.00
Days of Love and Rage: A Story of RevolutionAnand Gopal22h 36m4.7 (584)$34 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h4.6 (5.2K)$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m4.6 (678)$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Jubal Stone: U.S. Marshal: Blood Trail To Hell: A Western Adventure NovelCasey Nash3h 42m4.6 (3.2K)$18 · $0.00
Fall and RiseMitchell Zuckoff17h 23m4.6 (9.8K)$40 · $0.00
You may also like
Our Kind of PeopleLawrence Otis Graham16h 42m4.1 (3.5K)$40 · $0.00
The Dream of the Red Chamber (Annotated)Cao Xueqin50h 12m4.3 (13.1K)$2 · $0.00
The Age of HomespunLaurel Thatcher Ulrich18h 50m4.2 (657)$30
Essays of Michel de Montaigne — CompleteMichel de Montaigne53h 20m4.4 (28.8K)Free
The Viking HeartArthur Herman18h 49m3.8 (1.8K)$40 · $0.00
The Greek WayEdith Hamilton8h 27m4.0 (5.4K)$17
White KidsMargaret A. Hagerman8h 36m4.3 (1.5K)$20 · $0.00
Sketches of Jewish Social Life (Annotated)Alfred Edersheim11h 31m4.2 (592)$2 · $0.00
The American RaceDaniel G. Brinton13h 19m$2 · $0.00
Creative Cake DesignsNaumann & Göbel Verlag3h 24m$5 · $0.00
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7Edgar Thurston14h 44m$2.30
Pompeii, Its Life and Art (Annotated)August Mau17h 36m4.2 (211)$2 · $0.00
The God-Idea of the Ancients; Or, Sex in ReligionEliza Burt Gamble7h 57m4.2 (48)$1 · $0.00
Fonseca-robbins´lexiconJohn Fonseca-robbins14h 41m$5 · $0.00
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 1 of 7Edgar Thurston15h 9m4.2 (33)$2.30
The Position of Woman in Primitive Society: A Study of the MatriarchyC. Gasquoine Hartley5h 36m3.5 (21)$1 · $0.00
My Child Has a Schedule Like a CEO - How to Choose Extracurricular Activities, Protect Ordinary Free Time, and Stop Organizing Childhood Like Olympic TrainingMax Paradox4h 57m4.5 (65)$7.70 · $0.00
Ancient Society (Summarized Edition)Lewis Henry Morgan4h 59m$2
The Right PeopleStephen Birmingham12h 16m3.5 (142)$27 · $0.00
The Art of Needle-work, from the Earliest Ages, 3rd edSutherland active 1840-1883 Menzies9h 7m$2 · $0.00