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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Print Price: $48.50

Format:
Paperback
480 pp.
23 black and white halftones, 129 mm x 196 mm

ISBN-13:
9780199532087

Publication date:
October 2008

Imprint: OUP UK


Clean

A History of Personal Hygiene and Purity

Virginia Smith


Why do we still have nits? What exactly are 'purity rules'? And why have baths scarcely changed in 200 years?

The long history of personal hygiene and purity is a fascinating subject that reveals how closely we are linked to our deeper past. In this pioneering book, Virginia Smith covers the global history of human body-care from the Neolithic to the present, using first-hand accounts and sources.

From pre-historic grooming rituals to New Age medicine, from ascetics to cosmetics, Smith looks at how different cultures have interpreted and striven for personal cleanliness and shows how, throughout history, this striving for purity has brought great social benefits as well as great tragedies. It is probably safe to say that no-one who reads this book will look at his or her body (or bathroom) in quite the same way again.

Readership : Health professionals interested in the history of nursing and health-care; the general reader interested in the history of hygiene, health, and attitudes to the body and body-care.

Reviews

  • `Review from previous edition Utterly engaging'
    New York Times
  • `An authoritative and fascinating account of how hygiene has transformed societies and how, sometimes, humanity's attempts to scrub up can backfire.'
    New Scientist
  • `immaculately researched... filled with fascinating pieces of information


    '
    Virginia Ironside, Literary Review
  • `[A] fascinating and detailed account.'
    Dr Susan Aldridge, Focus
  • `Smith has written a fact-rich book.'
    The First Post
  • `Lucid and wide-ranging.'
    Bee Wilson, The Times (Books)
  • `Jam-packed with historical information.'
    Jenny McCartney, Sunday Telegraph
  • `A breath-taking account of cleanliness from prehistory up to the present day.'
    Sophie Harrison, Sunday Times (Culture)
  • `Authoritative and fascinating.'
    New Scientist
  • `Lots of fascinating revelations.'
    Liz Jones, Evening Standard (London)

1. Bio-Physicality
2. The Cosmetic Toilette
3. Greek Hygiene
4. Roman Baths
5. Asceticism
6. Medieval Morals
7. Protestant Regimens
8. Civil Cleanliness
9. Health Crusaders
10. The Body Beautiful
Select Bibliography
Index

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

Virginia Smith is a freelance historian who specializes in the history of personal hygiene. She was previously a Fellow of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, under the supervision of the late Roy Porter, and is currently an honorary fellow of the Centre for History in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her current research interests include the history of cosmetics, spas, and nudity.

There are no related titles available at this time.

Special Features

  • The first general history of human hygiene for over a century
  • Covers the global history of human body-care, from the Neolithic to the present
  • Reveals how our obsession with cleanliness betrays our close links to our pre-human past
  • Shows the importance of cleanliness and purity in social history - from ascetics to cosmetics