History in the Floorboards: A Book Finds Human Stories in Eight English Houses

History is not just about wars and dates. For architecture expert Dan Cruickshank, it is in the floors, grates, and walls of our homes. His new book, "The English House," explores eight buildings constructed between the early 1700s and 1924. They range from a Gothic mansion to some of Britain's first public housing. The tour shows how architectural styles changed over two centuries. Cruickshank focuses on the people behind these houses. He asks who commissioned them and how they were built. This approach is part of a trend where historians study ordinary homes, not just palaces, to learn about the lives of past residents. The book follows a path set by other writers and television series. They all prove that the story of a house is often the story of the people who lived in it.