Urban Homesteading: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Modern Making

In 1900 about 40 percent of Americans (40 million) lived on farms, and a similar percentage worked on farms. All farms had machinery and woodworking shops, and the people living and working on farms knew how to repair equipment, make furniture, and build almost anything they needed. People were makers by necessity, and as a result they acquired many useful DIY skills that they applied to their leisure activities as well.

Today, fewer than 2 percent of Americans live or work on farms. Most people aren’t makers by necessity, and the flood of cheap junk from China starting in the 70s resulted in people not caring about repairing the stuff they owned. Everything became disposable.

But along with throwing away stuff, we also threw away a rich, rewarding sense of self-reliance that comes from being able to make, mend, and maintain the things around us. But in recent years, for a variety of reasons that Frauenfelder will describe, people have rediscovered the joy of DIY.