Research Catalog

Foul bodies : cleanliness in early America

Title
Foul bodies : cleanliness in early America / Kathleen M. Brown.
Author
Brown, Kathleen M., 1960-
Publication
New Haven : Yale University Press, [2009], ©2009.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
Book/TextUse in library RA780 .B76 2009Off-site

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Description
xiv, 450 pages : illustrations; 25 cm.
Summary
"A nation's standards of private cleanliness reveal much about its ideals of civilization, fears of disease, and expectations for public life, says Kathleen Brown in this unusual cultural history. Starting with the shake-up of European practices that coincided with Atlantic expansion, she traces attitudes toward "dirt" through the mid-nineteenth century, demonstrating that cleanliness - and the lack of it - had moral, religious, and often sexual implications. Brown contends that care of the body is not simply a private matter but an expression of cultural ideals that reflect the fundamental values of a society." "The book explores early America's evolving perceptions of cleanliness, along the way analyzing the connections between changing public expectations for appearance and manners and the backstage work of grooming, laundering, and housecleaning performed by women. Brown provides an intimate view of cleanliness practices and the ways in which such forces as urbanization, immigration, market conditions, and concerns about social mobility influenced them."--BOOK JACKET.
Series Statement
Society and the sexes in the modern world
Uniform Title
Society and the sexes in the modern world.
Subject
  • Hygiene > United States > History > 18th century
  • Hygiene > United States > History > 19th century
  • Hygiene > history
  • Cultural Evolution
  • History, 17th Century
  • History, 18th Century
  • History, 19th Century
  • Human Body
  • United States
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 369-435) and index.
Contents
1. Caring for the Early Modern Body -- 2. Skin -- 3. Corruption -- 4. Empire's New Clothes -- 5. Gentility -- 6. Virtue -- 7. Reimagining Sickness and Health -- 8. Healing Housework -- 9. Redemption -- 10. Laborers -- 11. Immersion -- 12. Mission -- Afterword: Toward the Modern Body.
ISBN
  • 9780300106183 (cloth : alk. paper)
  • 0300106181 (cloth : alk. paper)
LCCN
2008022131
OCLC
  • ocn150336396
  • 150336396
  • SCSB-5448843
Owning Institutions
Columbia University Libraries