During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Americans who had been used to working from an office found themselves working from home. But while this might have felt like a very sudden shift, it’s part of a historic movement toward home-based work. This week, we’ll dive into that history — and some of its really nefarious themes.
Elizabeth Patton is an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her research focuses on historical representations of gender and race in TV and film, representations of urbanism and suburbanism in popular culture, and the impact of communication technologies on our sense of place and space – and it’s that last category of her studies that she deals with in her new book, Easy Living: The Rise of the Home Office.
