Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn: A Social History of the Tea Room Craze in
America
By Jan Whitaker
St. Martin’s Press, 2002
I am a bit late to the game in
reading and reviewing Jan Whitaker’s Tea
at the Blue Lantern Inn: A Social History of the Tea Room Craze in America. The book has been languishing on my bookshelf
for a number of years now. But I
recently got the urge to pull it out and read it.
I enjoyed this book. But, Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn
has very little to do with tea. In fact, as I read along in the book it slowly
dawned on me that American tea rooms of that period (1890’s – 1950’s) were not
much like what I call “tea rooms of today.”
The tea rooms of this early twentieth
century “Tea Room Craze” were more vessels for bringing women out of the home
into the public sphere than they were institutions dedicated to the ceremony of
afternoon tea or to the enjoyment of fine specialty teas. I nodded in agreement upon reaching page 134
of Whitaker’s book and reading this quote by early twentieth century essayist,
Agnes Repplier:
“The only thing which doesn’t seem to
count in a tea-room is tea.”
I enjoyed reading Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn because I am
interested in Whitaker’s point that tea rooms “did play a role in bringing
women out into society and into the business world.” (page 1) It was
interesting to read about the various ways in which the “Tea Room Craze” left
its mark on twentieth century America.
But if you want to read more specifically about tea (the beverage or the
event) and its place in American history, I would look elsewhere.
For a couple of reviews by fellow tea bloggers, go here
http://teawithfriends.blogspot.com/2010/12/tea-and-books-saturday-51-tea-at-blue.html
and here
https://destinationtea.com/the-rise-of-the-american-tea-room-serving-womens-rights-with-a-cup-of-tea/.
For a couple of reviews by fellow tea bloggers, go here
http://teawithfriends.blogspot.com/2010/12/tea-and-books-saturday-51-tea-at-blue.html
and here
https://destinationtea.com/the-rise-of-the-american-tea-room-serving-womens-rights-with-a-cup-of-tea/.
