<![CDATA[The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History]]>

false <![CDATA[The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History]]> 2111775 4 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 became even more extreme as the millennium approached. Now we live in a deodorized world where germophobes shake hands with their elbows and where sales of hand sanitizers, wipes and sprays are skyrocketing. The apparently routine task of taking up soap and water (or not) is Katherine Ashenburg’s starting point for a unique exploration of Western culture, which yields surprising insights into our notions of privacy, health, individuality, religion and sexuality. Ashenburg searches for clean and dirty in plague-ridden streets, medieval steam baths, castles and tenements, and in bathrooms of every description. She reveals the bizarre rescriptions of history’s doctors as well as the hygienic peccadilloes of kings, mistresses, monks and ordinary citizens, and guides us through the twists and turns to our own understanding of clean, which is no more rational than the rest. Filled with amusing anecdotes and quotations from the great bathers of history, The Dirt on Clean takes us on a journey that is by turns intriguing, humorous, startling and not always for the squeamish. Ashenburg’s tour of history’s baths and bathrooms reveals much about our changing and most intimate selves – what we desire, what we ignore, what we fear, and a significant part of who we are. 2117183 12 10 2007 The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History total:163|5:24|4:63|3:57|2:18|1:1| 163 580 439 58 3 2 true false Sat Sep 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 09 10:26:37 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 05 17:56:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Dec 08 13:11:01 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 08 13:13:46 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 03 16:48:51 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 13:56:53 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jun 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 19:06:34 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 30 16:41:36 -0700 2009 .5
This book is a history of bathing and the varying importance placed on a clean body. The author was very thorough, which made some of the passages repetitive. Bathing was good...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun May 25 18:29:19 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 21 17:51:12 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Feb 26 10:08:21 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 08 23:14:22 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 20 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 15 14:05:53 -0800 2008 Sat Jun 14 11:48:32 -0700 2008 Although this isn't a partic...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 21 13:37:18 -0800 2007 Sat Jan 12 10:15:10 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Sep 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Nov 29 18:49:27 -0800 2008 Tue Sep 29 08:58:34 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jun 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 15 21:55:07 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 27 18:34:43 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Sep 01 17:58:38 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 18:00:10 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 21:17:26 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 01 13:26:04 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Aug 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 16 04:15:21 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 28 04:57:36 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 14:44:50 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 20:17:02 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sat Mar 14 14:27:50 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 14 14:30:59 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Mar 11 10:58:21 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 11 10:58:52 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri Apr 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 07 10:52:47 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 18 10:42:36 -0700 2008
It was interesting to read about the transitions of beliefs from c...more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Mar 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jan 25 19:57:57 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 25 20:01:15 -0800 2009 1 4 0 false false Fri Jul 11 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 01 13:05:30 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 11 18:37:42 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 03 12:39:33 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 03 12:46:11 -0800 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2111775