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While the idea of \"home\" remains constant -- the epitome of the familiar and reliable -- actual home life is messier and changes all the time. So says Judith Flanders, author of \"The Making of Home: The 500-Year Story of How Our Houses Became Our Homes\" (Thomas Dunne Books, September 2015), in which she traces the evolution of the home, and concepts of home, in northern Europe and America from the 16th century to the early 20th century. For instance, while some might think that families and marriages used to be more stable, \"broken homes were the absolute norm in most of history,\" she says. \"A home can't be any more broken than if one parent is dead.\" \"The reason the idea of 'home' survives is because it's so fluid that it can encompass rapidly changing social customs,\" says Flanders. \"It's a nice warm quilt to wrap ourselves in to keep out the cold that's outside.\"

The origins of the word \"home\" are ancient, denoting \" both a place and an attitude \". Historian Judith Flanders traces the economic, architectural, cultural and technological changes that have shaped our idea of home across 500 years.

Judith Flanders's book views the making of \"home\" from the vantage point of historical anthropology, looking at myths and rituals, marriage practices and the material fashioning of houses as homes. Its sweep is impressive, from the 16th century into the 20th. Her focus is on those countries that have words that distinguish house and home. For Flanders, these are the \"home countries\" (the Netherlands, North America, Germany, Britain), places that have all, over the centuries, developed a particular attachment to the home as a cosy respite from an aggressive world.