"The idea that 'home' is a special place, a separate place, a place where we can
be our true selves, is so obvious to us today that we barely pause to think abo
ut it. But, as Judith Flanders shows in this revealing book, 'home' is a relativ
ely new concept. When in 1900 Dorothy assured the citizens of Oz that 'There is
no place like home', she was expressing a view that was a culmination of 300 yea
rs of economic, physical and emotional change.
