A History of Hygiene in Modern France - by Steven Zdatny (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

This book tells the story of an epochal change in the human condition that was part of what is often thought of as 'modernization' -a process that remade culture and society in France in the 19th and 20th centuries. Hygiene, Steven Zdatny convincingly contends, was that change. He reflects on how the development of hygiene: changed the way people thought about and treated their bodies; put an end to age-old afflictions and brought comfort where discomfort had been the unavoidable companion of existence; and helped produce a tripling of life expectancy.

The book considers how the evolution of hygiene produced a society where people washed often, changed their clothes every day, lived without lice and scabies, and performed their natural functions indoors. It reflects on developments in industrial plumbing, public education, government investment, the invention of new products to keep bodies and homes clean, and a parallel makeover in the expectations, sensibilities, and practices about what is 'proper' and what is disgusting. These developments, the study reveals, were not steady and did not happen everywhere at the same pace. But in the fullness of time, they produced a revolution in the human condition.

Review Quotes

"Engaging ... This provocative and well-written story will make readers more cognizant of how recently it became a part of human history and, given its requirements, how limited hygiene remains on a global scale." --Journal of Modern History

"Deeply researched and charmingly written, it holds wide appeal for scholars of infrastructure, urbanism, nation building, and the senses-and the co-constitutive relationship between them." --H-Net Reviews

"Zdatny assesses and challenges long-standing critiques of hygienic modernisation" --English Historical Review

"There are riches embedded in this book's anecdotes, quotations, and footnotes that will amply repay the attention of historians of any nation or era interested in bodily practices, changing mores, and sanitary infrastructure." --Social History

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