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. 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. The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History Katherine Ashenburg 3.71 2,383 ratings321 reviews 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. 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. Did Napoleon know something we didn't when he wrote Josephine 'I will return in five days. Save up to 80 versus print by going digital with VitalSource. The Digital and eTextbook ISBNs for The Dirt on Clean are 9781466867765, 1466867760 and the print ISBNs are 9780374531379, 0374531374. The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History Katherine Ashenburg North Point Press: 2007. 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. The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History is written by Katherine Ashenburg and published by North Point Press. 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.

The question of cleanliness is one every age and culture has answered with confidence. A spirited chronicle of the West's ambivalent relationship with dirt

Katherine ashenburg the dirt on clean