The Dirt on Clean

An Unsanitized History

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Human Services, History
Cover of the book The Dirt on Clean by Katherine Ashenburg, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Katherine Ashenburg ISBN: 9781466867765
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication: April 8, 2014
Imprint: North Point Press Language: English
Author: Katherine Ashenburg
ISBN: 9781466867765
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication: April 8, 2014
Imprint: North Point Press
Language: English

The question of cleanliness is one every age and culture has answered with confidence. For the first-century Roman, being clean meant a two-hour soak in baths of various temperatures, scraping the body with a miniature rake, and a final application of oil. For the aristocratic Frenchman in the seventeenth century, it meant changing your shirt once a day and perhaps going so far as to dip your hands in some water. Did Napoleon know something we didn't when he wrote Josephine "I will return in five days. Stop washing"? And why is the German term Warmduscher—a man who washes in warm or hot water—invariably a slight against his masculinity? Katherine Ashenburg takes on such fascinating questions as these in Dirt on Clean, her charming tour of attitudes to hygiene through time.

What could be more routine than taking up soap and water and washing yourself? And yet cleanliness, or the lack of it, is intimately connected to ideas as large as spirituality and sexuality, and historical events that include plagues, the Civil War, and the discovery of germs. An engrossing fusion of erudition and anecdote, Dirt on Clean considers the bizarre prescriptions of history's doctors, the hygienic peccadilloes of great authors, and the historic twists and turns that have brought us to a place Ashenburg considers hedonistic yet oversanitized.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The question of cleanliness is one every age and culture has answered with confidence. For the first-century Roman, being clean meant a two-hour soak in baths of various temperatures, scraping the body with a miniature rake, and a final application of oil. For the aristocratic Frenchman in the seventeenth century, it meant changing your shirt once a day and perhaps going so far as to dip your hands in some water. Did Napoleon know something we didn't when he wrote Josephine "I will return in five days. Stop washing"? And why is the German term Warmduscher—a man who washes in warm or hot water—invariably a slight against his masculinity? Katherine Ashenburg takes on such fascinating questions as these in Dirt on Clean, her charming tour of attitudes to hygiene through time.

What could be more routine than taking up soap and water and washing yourself? And yet cleanliness, or the lack of it, is intimately connected to ideas as large as spirituality and sexuality, and historical events that include plagues, the Civil War, and the discovery of germs. An engrossing fusion of erudition and anecdote, Dirt on Clean considers the bizarre prescriptions of history's doctors, the hygienic peccadilloes of great authors, and the historic twists and turns that have brought us to a place Ashenburg considers hedonistic yet oversanitized.

More books from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Cover of the book The Reef: A Passionate History: The Great Barrier Reef from Captain Cook to Climate Change by Katherine Ashenburg
Cover of the book Nelly May Has Her Say by Katherine Ashenburg
Cover of the book Claudette Colvin by Katherine Ashenburg
Cover of the book Things That Helped by Katherine Ashenburg
Cover of the book The Playwright's Guidebook by Katherine Ashenburg
Cover of the book Rock Harbor by Katherine Ashenburg
Cover of the book Odds Against Tomorrow by Katherine Ashenburg
Cover of the book All the Houses by Katherine Ashenburg
Cover of the book From the Mouth of the Whale by Katherine Ashenburg
Cover of the book Christopher and His Kind by Katherine Ashenburg
Cover of the book Imagining Numbers by Katherine Ashenburg
Cover of the book The Gutenberg Elegies by Katherine Ashenburg
Cover of the book The Last Supper by Katherine Ashenburg
Cover of the book Dare to Disappoint by Katherine Ashenburg
Cover of the book Jack's New Power by Katherine Ashenburg
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy