Foul bodies : cleanliness in early America / Kathleen M. Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Kathleen M., 1960-

Series:

Society and the sexes in the modern world.

Society and the sexes in the modern world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hygiene--United States--History--18th century.

Hygiene.

Hygiene--United States--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (464 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

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 how such forces as urbanization, immigration, market conditions, and concerns about social mobility influenced them. Broad in historical scope and imaginative in its insights, this book expands the topic of cleanliness to encompass much larger issues, including religion, health, gender, class, and race relations.

Contents:

Caring for the early modern body

Skin

Corruption

Empire's new clothes

Gentility

Virtue

Reimagining sickness and health

Healing housework

Redemption

Laborers

Immersion

Mission.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 369-435) and index.

ISBN:

9786612352072

9781282352070

1282352075

9780300160277

0300160275

OCLC:

592756094