The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History.

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

To wash or not to wash … that is only the first of many questions Ashenburg asks of history. Questions such as: With or without soap? In public or privately? With or without undressing first? Warm water or cold? And will that be fingers only or a total body job?

In 2,000-plus years the western world has had a complex on-again, off-again relationship with cleanliness. A lot of deep thinkers, dedicated scientists, religious leaders, medical professionals, and just ordinary folks have contemplated the pros and cons of the human body coming in contact with water—or not. Throughout 28 centuries the debate has been whether it is best to let the skin’s pores clog with grime so disease can’t get into the body, or to soak open those pores so diseases in the body can escape. Queen Elizabeth I went all the way and bathed once a month. Her successor, James I, washed only his fingers. In the 1600s, doctors ordered their aristocratic patients not to wash at all. In the Middle Ages some holy orders allowed monks three baths a year, with opting out a matter of personal choice. This well-researched book is packed with such reports, ranging from the bath-focused culture of the Greeks and Romans, through European attitudes to cleanliness during the Black Plague and colonial period, to that most American of phenomena, soap advertising.

The work delivers a look into how different societies, at different points in history, have defined cleanliness. It examines how cleanliness touches on religion, social customs, sexuality, privacy, technology, medicine, even politics. The content covers public bath houses, Regency bathing machines, spas, bidets, tubs, various attempts to invent the shower, the production error that caused Ivory soap to float, deodorants, mouthwashes, and related topics.

Sidebars, short quotes, anecdotes, approximately 45 illustrations, and a fast-paced, entertaining style keep the reader moving lightly through the substantial text. Detailed, documented research, a bibliography, index, and brief notes from an interview with the author give strength and validity to the text as a credible social history.