A man’s home is his castle but a proper recliner is his throne. It is a birthright, part of our history and culture.

The American Dream has always included the notion that after a hard day of work the breadwinner, the head of the household — the dad in the idealized 1950s television and movie version of the dream — is entitled to kick back and relax. And no piece of furniture is more a part of that concept than the recliner.

Our founding fathers had in mind that every man should be comfortable in his castle. That is why they provided him with the means to protect his domain.

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” states the Second Amendment.

I am quite sure that had the La-Z-Boy existed in the 18th century, our founders would have added that a well rested voter being necessary to the health of a free state, the right of the head of the household to have a recliner in his home shall not be infringed.

Those tired and hungry immigrants who passed by the Statue of Liberty on their way to a better life understood what America offered. The recliner is a testament to American ingenuity and ambition.

In the 1920s, cousins Edward Knabusch, a woodworker, and Edwin Shoemaker, a farmer with mechanical skills, quit their jobs and started their own furniture company in their hometown of Monroe, Michigan.

The company, Floral City Furniture, prospered, and in 1928 the cousins designed and patented a wooden slatted porch chair that incorporated a reclining mechanism, the first of its kind. According to the company’s history, the chair was designed “for nature’s way of relaxing.”

In 1929, a customer suggested that the cousins upholster the chair and market it as a year-round piece of furniture. The cousins did something that today would be enough to attract the attention of Harvard Business School and spawn a book on how to be a successful CEO — they listened to their customer.

Friends and family helped raise the $10,000 the company needed to produce the new chair. But, what to name the chair was a question. I assume it was a wife that came up with the answer.

The company named the chair the “La-Z-Boy.” It would later adopt that name as it grew to become the world’s leading manufacturer of reclining chairs and one of the nation’s largest producers of upholstered sofas, loveseats, chairs, and ottomans.

The other name synonymous with recliners is Barcalounger. Anton Lorenz of Hungary originally designed the chair with an attached footrest that was easy to operate when the sitter leaned back. He had hospital patients in mind.

He took his idea to America and licensed it to the Barcalo Company in New York. Although the chair was used first as a wheelchair and later a lawn chair, the first upholstered Barcalounger appeared in department stores in 1949, according to eHow, an online reference page.

In 1959, with televisions popping up in more homes, the company called the Barcalounger “the Home Theater Chair.” In 1966, the company introduced its “Designer Recliners.”

But Barcalounger did not fare as well as La-Z-Boy. The North Carolina based company filed for bankruptcy protection in May and closed in September of that year, a victim of the downturn in the economy and furniture sales.

Recliners manufactured by several companies now come in all shapes, sizes and coverings. Marketing targets women as well as men. There are sofas with built in recliners on each end that come with compartments for magazines, drink holders, and accessories, so that the chair’s inhabitant need not move for an entire day.

A recliner can cost between a few hundred dollars and a few thousand depending on material, craftsmanship and features.

Check this out: The La-Z-Boy Chill Massage/Heat Rocker Recliner costs just under $1,000. According to the catalog, it comes with the following features: a thermo-electric cooler nestled in the flip arm and a two-way motor massage with heat.

Bradington and Young, one of the furniture lines found at Vineyard Decorators in Edgartown and Island Home Furnishings in Tisbury, specializes in leather recliners suitable for an Island man cave or a Manhattan apartment.

If a leather recliner is a throne, think of Bradington Seven Seas six-piece home theater group as the king’s round table, the one piece of furniture capable of accommodating six rabid sports fans in comfort in front of a 50-inch plasma television.

This nifty piece of leather furniture comes in two man colors: rich dark burgundy leather or medium brown cognac leather. It has two end chairs, with flared arms finished with classic nail-head trim. The two inside seats come with armrest consoles with cup holders. All of the seats recline.

How much does it cost? Apparently, if you have to ask you cannot afford it, because no site that I could find on the web advertises the price.

A leather recliner singly or in combination is an imposing piece of furniture. Form and function combine in the size of the chair, the smell of the leather and its dark, relaxing tones, and the comfort a chair provides.

Several years ago, during my weekly scan of The Times classified section, I spotted a leather couch and armchair listed for sale. The timing was right because a couch we had bought new had long ago been appropriated by our lab and was no longer fit for human use.

My wife agreed to purchase the leather combination. I still consider it one of our best finds. Sitting in the leather chair and throwing the lever to recline is an experience akin to falling into a well-worn catcher’s mitt.

And therein lies the leather recliner’s one drawback. Every night, across our nation, from the humblest apartment to the grandest mansion, weary men return to the comfort of their recliners with the best of intentions — to read, or watch TV, or have a conversation with their wives. They settle into a recliner and soon fall fast asleep.

I know this from experience.

Nelson Sigelman is managing editor of The Martha’s Vineyard Times.