Product Description

Who would have supposed that the Romans had lagged hot-water pipes? that Queen Elizabeth I had a valve water-closet? that Louis XIV had cushions in his bath? that sponges have sex? This book, says the author, "is meant to entertain, even if scholarship does keep breaking through". This book offers an excursion into the household's most private room. Informative and hilarious, it suggests that more may be learnt about the past from bathrooms than battlefields, and that patterns of social history may be mirrored in the bathwater or found locked in the water-closet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #687314 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 282 pages

Customer Reviews

Historical Romp
A marvellous romp through the history of personal hygeine. Full of insight, wit and social commentary. The line drawings and engravings add greatly to the text.

Starting five thousand years ago, we are brought to the late 1950s by way of the Romans; Monks from the Dark Ages; Tudor Royalty and all stops in between. From pacific island dwellers to turn of the century New York hotel guests, the reader is given just enough technical information.

Highly recommended. If only an update of the last forty years were possible.