All the Dirt: A History of Getting Clean by Katherine Ashenburg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Very detailed, yet fun book about the history of cleanliness, all over the world, although the main focus is the Western world. If all you know about how people kept clean, in the past, is the Roman bathes and perfume, then this book will fill you in on the different ideas about cleanliness, as well as how people achieved it from ancient times, to the present.
Each chapter begins with a view of what it must have been like in the time period, to be clean, taken from source material. And how our view of cleanliness changed, as the times changed, how some thought it was more holy to be dirty and some people thought it was the opposite.
Good book to have in the classroom, or home. Apparently, this is a child’s version of the adult book on dirt written by the same author.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.