Country Arts in Early American Homes Book

If life still allows me to be at a good university and to be able to go to a series of lectures on diverse and loosely linked subjects, and to take my time with some of the more closely argued concepts and to be made to chuckle with recognition or surprise, then life would be quite like reading The Dustbin of History.
Sometimes obscure, sometimes somewhat dated in his points of cultural reference (ok it was published in 1995 - but even then it was only dons and bar props who were pointing to these sources) but always well argued, thought provoking and entertaining.
I've been drawn through these essays at a dash. I shall return to each one separately and give it the full attention it deserves.