About this title: For the first-century Roman, being clean meant a public two-hour soak in baths of various temperatures, a scraping of the body with a miniature rake, and a final application of oil. For the seventeenth-century aristocratic Frenchman, it meant changing his shirt once a day, using perfume to obliterate both his own aroma and everyone else's, but never immersing himself in - horrors! - water. By the early 1900s, an extraordinary idea took hold in North America - that frequent bathing, perhaps even a daily bath, was advisable. Not since the Roman Empire had people been so clean, and standards ...
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Description: Good. 086547690X Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 086547690X Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 2007-Hardcover----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Edition: 1st
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: North Point Press
Date Published: 2008-10-28
ISBN-13:9780374531379ISBN:0374531374
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: North Point Press
Date Published: 2008-10-28
ISBN-13:9780374531379ISBN:0374531374
Description: New. New, unread, unused & in perfect condition with no damaged or missing pages. Pre-release book with plain cover and stickers. Great Copy. Ships Lightning Fast. read more
"Wow! I read this book for my book group, Bound Together, and boy am I impressed! This book was unlike any other. I will confess that I times I was a bit grossed out, but Ashenburg's detail on the history of cleanliness made the book impossible to put down. I cannot believe how much has changed! The transition from public bathing to the obsessive need of Americans to bathe daily is surprising when you know the scandalous past of showers! I learned so much about the social history of cleanliness and I hope to use much of what I've learned in the history class that I teach. Remember, this book is not for the faint of the heart!"
"You wouldn't believe it, but I liked this book. I liked learning about how people in different times and in different places thought about what "clean" means. Read it!"
"Currently in America the average person can visit a drugstore and find entire aisles devoted to a previously unimaginable number of products to clean our bodies with: body wash, shampoos, conditioners, body scrubs, face scrubs, bar soap, liquid soap, gel soap, exfoliators, foaming cleansers, etc... And each of those products is available in a wide range of scents that allow us to choose to smell like baby powder, lilacs, vanilla, sweet peas, even chocolate. In this atmosphere it is easy to forget - if we ever knew - that until relatively recently in human history people smelled like, well, like people. Most of the time they didn't have a choice, but even when they did there was no consensus about the desirability or even the healthfulness of being clean. Over the centuries doctors have repeatedly advised against bathing for reasons as diverse as the fact that washing away the coating of oils on the body "opened the pores" to disease or that regular bathing would lead to "sinfulness" and ultimately insanity.
The Dirt on Clean is a fun look at the standards of personal cleanliness down through the centuries. Ashenburg doesn't have any new information to add and if you are interested in the subject and have already read other histories I doubt you will learn anything you didn't already know, but she has an easy, friendly writing style and the book is interspersed with quotes and illustrations that make it a quick read."
"I strongly recommend this book to anyone and everyone- it provides a fascinating presentation of Western culture through the practice of cleaning (or NOT cleaning). Oh, the things I've learned from this! I now see history through an entirely new set of eyes."
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