Pocket: A Hidden History of Women's Lives, 1660-1900

A New York Times Best Art Book of 2019, this fascinating and enlightening study of the tie-on pocket combines materiality and gender to provide new insight into the social history of women's everyday lives, from duchesses and country gentry to prostitutes and washerwomen, exploring their consumption practices, sociability, mobility, privacy, and identity.

According to Roberta Smith's "Top Art Books of 2019" in The New York Times, the book is "a riveting book . . . few stones are left unturned." Kathryn Hughes of The Guardian further notes that "what particularly interests Burman and Fennetaux is the way in which women of all classes have historically used these tie-on pockets as a supplementary body part to help them negotiate their way through a world that was not built to suit them."

The wealth of evidence revealed in this work brings women's stories into intimate focus, uncovering unexpected facets of the past. As described by Ulinka Rublack in the Times Literary Supplement, it is "a brilliant book."

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