Have you ever wondered why, out of all the seasonings, we have developed such a strong bond only with salt and pepper? Or why the fork has four tines, not three or five? Did you know that the second most common cause of accidental death is falling from a ladder? Or that the Baths of Diocletian in ancient Rome could accommodate 3,000 people?

To answer these and many more questions, Bill Bryson wanders around his house and reveals the threads that unexpectedly connect the things around us, in one of the most entertaining and enlightening books ever written about our way of life.

Whatever happens in the world ultimately ends up in our homes in one way or another. Wars, famines, the Industrial Revolution, the Enlightenment – all these are found within our sofas and drawers, […] in the paint on our walls and the water running through our pipes. The history of domestic life is therefore not just a history of beds and sofas and kitchen stoves, but also of scurvy and manure and the Eiffel Tower and bedbugs in beds […]. Our homes are not shelters from history. They are its final destination.

From the book's introduction