Concepts of cleanliness : changing attitudes in France since the Middle Ages /

Vigarello shows that the Western idea of what is clean and what is not has changed greatly over time. Drawing examples from hundreds of published and unpublished sources--laws; treatises on health, hygiene, fashion, and manners; literature, diaries, and letters--Vigarello focuses on French attitudes to illustrate the slow evolution of these concepts into the current perception of what is essential to be clean. His findings are startling. To be clean in medieval France meant washing and purifying only the visible body--the hands and face; exposing the rest of the body to water was thought to be dangerous and even sinful. By the early modern period, the fashionable appearance of linen and lace denoted cleanliness. Cleaning one's shirt was the equivalent of being clean; perfumes and powders masked odors and dirt. Bathing was felt to be harmful until the early 19th century because it exposed the skin's pores to penetrating evils. Our present ideas on hygiene, public health, and medical knowledge about epidemics then began to form, but not without opposition, as Vigarello shows. This imaginative, provocative, and rewarding study reflects the creative approaches of the new social history. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries, community college level up. -D. R. Skopp, SUNY College at Plattsburgh