How the Working-Class Home Became Modern, 1900–1940The transformation of average Americans domestic lives, revealed through the mechanical innovations and physical improvements of their homes At the turn of the nineteenth century, the average American family still lived by kerosene light, ate in the kitchen, and used an outhouse. By 1940, electric lights, dining rooms, and bathrooms were the norm as the traditional working class home was fast becoming moderna fact largely missing from the story of