I've read it. It is good, but not as good as her first book. I missed the significance of the passage you've pointed out, but it actually runs couter to my admittedly ill-informed conception of earlier architecture. I would have though the earlier houses would have been smaller than than later ones due to the need to conserve time/heat/building materials, etc. Later "Ranch" houses might have had smaller kithens but, I would have thought, bigger living rooms. Maybe music moves out of homes and into halls when clusters of family groups become communities and want to socialize together.

Is the author historically accurate throughout the book? I'm not able to judge that very well.

Phil