Talking Shop With “Home Economics” Author Jennifer McKnight Trontz

For Jennifer McKnight Trontz, the past is the gift that keeps on giving. The author of nearly a dozen books that could sit comfortably among the retro novelty titles at Urban Outfitters—maybe you’ve even picked one up as a birthday gift, paired with one of those shot glasses with a mustache on it?—Trontz has compiled and curated inspirational art from the 1970’s (resulting in 2004’s “Hang In There!”), New Wave album covers (“This Ain’t No Disco”), teen popularity tips from the 1960’s and 70’s (“How to Be Popular”), self-help advice spanning from the 1920s through the 1970s (“Yes You Can: Timeless Advice from Self-Help Experts”) and advice from government, civics, and scouting handbooks of the 1920s through 1960s (“The Good Citizen’s Handbook: A Guide to Proper Behavior”).

Her most recent release, “Home Economics: Vintage Advice and Practical Science for the 21st-Century Household,” looks like a particularly lovely, scaled-down Home Ec textbook, the kind of thing Betty Draper might give to her daughter—though sitting on my coffee table in 2010, it’s much less ominous and prescriptive than it would have been for poor Sally. The snippets of advice on everything from removing stains to baking bread, gardening, mending, pickling and party planning resonate with a familiar kind of generalized nostalgia, but Trontz told me that she’s serious about passing on these skills to people who can use them today.

You’ve written lots of books that deal with the past in some way. How did you first start compiling these retro-focused pop culture titles?

Since I didn’t grow up in those times, I can just look at them for how they appear—not what the context was, or what life was like then. I like the alternate reality of things that don’t exist anymore. And when you look at something from a different era, you can kind of escape the one you’re in.

“Home Economics” is a straightforward presentation of vintage advice. Sometimes there’s a pretty fine line between what’s timeless and what’s laughable. What makes the advice in your book timeless?

Everyone—men and women—has to know how to do this kind of stuff. People have to clean their toilets and sweep their floors. It’s valuable information for the most part, and it really hasn’t changed. And I don’t really think it’s political. The tone of some of the stuff directed towards women—about how to look good while you do all this—I think is dated. If there is some of that, I just thought it was funny, and not for people to take seriously.

How did you come across those sources? How wide did you cast your net in tracking this stuff down?

I wanted to find [advice and information] from before the 50’s. At the turn of the century and in the 20′s and 30′s, a lot more people couldn’t afford household help, so they had to learn a lot of these things. The books I looked at don’t stress having the perfect, ideal home; they just give basic information on how to maintain a house: how to feed your family, make money last, how to cook tough cuts of meat if you can’t afford more expensive cuts. That’s valuable information for most working and middle class people.

It’s interesting to look at this book in contrast to some of your earlier ones, like “How to be Popular,” which is also a collection of vintage advice, but is a lot more tongue-in-cheek. This book is full of tips and information that are really practical.

I have a daughter who’s going into ninth grade, and she’s never really learned how to do any of this stuff. I try to teach her, and I wonder about what she’ll be like when she goes off to college: Will she know how to wash clothes? It’s not that I want high schools to going back to teaching home economics, but people do need to have these skills. You don’t really see it stressed in schools anymore, and I thought if I could produce a book that has some of the same information, it could be really interesting and useful.

Still, do you picture people actually using the advice in here, or is it more of a novelty book?

I think people can really use it. Since it’s vintage advice and all the illustrations are older, it looks more interesting than a Martha Stewart book, with all those idealized interiors that people can’t really [replicate].

There’s so much of that glamorous, complicated homemaker stuff out there. Maybe the only way to make the information novel is to go back 60 years?

Yeah, it’s not glamorous to learn how to sweep a floor or make a bed, but it’s basic, valuable information. You don’t need a Dyson vacuum to clean your floors.

There must be a pretty big audience for books like this if you can keep writing them. Who do you think your readers are?

Well, people are returning to growing their own vegetables and doing all these home things that make them feel more secure, like eating locally and using natural products. It’s so cliché, but it’s about returning to simpler times. I’m 40, and I think that has some appeal for younger people. But I’m really totally out of touch with what 20-year-olds like.