Men, Women, and Pianos: A Social History

As the "social anchor" in middle-class homes of the 19th century, the piano was simultaneously an elegant piece of drawing-room furniture, a sign of bourgeois prosperity and a mean of introducing the young to music and entertaining their elders. In the admirably balanced and leisurely account of the popular instrument, the late, internationally known concert pianist Arthur Loesser takes a "piano's-eye view" of the recent social history of Western Europe and the United States.