Life Below Stairs

By A Guy Called LULU on Wed, 01/15/2014 - 3:19pm |

Today's show is perfect for you fans of the PBS TV series Downtown Abbey, which just started its fourth season on PBS stations around the country. We're going behind the scenes of England's grand country houses to talk about the relationship between those upstairs and those below: the hierarchy, the etiquette, and the rituals. The cultural historian Siân Evans, author of the book Life Below Stairs, joins Doug to help us peel back the fictional veneer for a look at the social workings of the Victorian and Edwardian era.

URL:

http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/life-below-stairs

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I learned a lot more than I expected to want to know about the social workings of the Victorian and Edwardian era. Now I look forward to watching the series.
Another excellent interview is with George Packer and about his book, The Unwinding.

http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/inner-history-new-america-1

by A Guy Called LULU on Wed, 01/15/2014 - 3:21pm

My main takeaway from a tour of the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC was that the fireplace in the library is larger than the servant rooms in the basement. How anyone could build a house like that for themselves and not build decent above ground housing for the people they depended to maintain that lifestyle still baffles me.

I enjoyed listening to the link about domestic service past so I thought I would share one about domestic service present.

Domestic Estate Managers Association

and here's a write up about them in Forbes

Modern-Day Downton Abbey: Inside The Super-Secret World Of Estate Management - Forbes

Experienced estate managers typically fetch six-figure salaries in return for a

substantial skill set that spans everything from knowledge of fine food and

wine to an understanding of art and architecture to skills in household

accounting, personnel management, first aid, computers, high-tech security

and HVAC systems.

The upstairs servants were and still are the D's in the strange D/s world of service. And now they have their own guild.

by EmmaZahn on Fri, 01/17/2014 - 4:36pm

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