Hygiene in World History by Peter N. Stearns - 9781041036784

Hygiene in World HistoryAuthor(s): Peter N. Stearns\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Routledge\nISBN-13: 9781041036784, 978-1041036784\nSynopsis\nThis book features a global, historical analysis of the changes and continuities in one of society??s basic functions: seeking to protect itself from disease.\n\nHygiene offers an important lens for major aspects of world and comparative history. The volume explores the ways different regions and major religions approached hygiene both before modern times and through the present with the more recent uses of germ theory. Topics in ??premodern? hygiene include toilet practices, remarkably varied views about bathing, and different levels of commitment to investments in hygiene infrastructure. The ??sanitary revolution? of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries forms a major dividing line in the book, including the variations introduced by developments like colonialism or communism and various for.