Title: Chasing dirt : the American pursuit of cleanliness /
Authors: Hoy, Suellen M.
Publisher: Oxford University Press,
Year: 1995
Subjects: University of South Alabama; Social Change; Sanitation; Hygiene; Hygiene United States History.; Sanitation United States History.; Public health United States History.; National characteristics, American; United States
Abstract: Americans in the early 19th century were, as one foreign traveller bluntly put it, "filthy, bordering on the beastly"--Perfectly at home in dirty, bug-infested, malodorous surroundings. Many a home swarmed with flies, barnyard animals, dust, and dirt; clothes were seldom washed; men hardly ever shaved or bathed. Yet gradually all this changed, and today Americans are known worldwide for their obsession with cleanliness - for their sophisticated plumbing, daily bathing, shiny hair and teeth, and spotless clothes. In Chasing Dirt, Suellen Hoy provides a colorful history of this remarkable transformation from "dreadfully dirty" to "cleaner than clean," ranging from the pre-Civil War era to the 1950s, when America's obsession with cleanliness reached its peak.
Contents: Introduction: Cleanliness First -- Ch. 1. Dreadfully Dirty. John Wesley, Benjamin Franklin, and Reality. The Filthy Farmstead. Towns and Cities, Dirty -- and Dangerous. The Domestic Woman, Agent of Cleanliness. Preceptress of Reform: Catharine Beecher. Cleanliness, Health, and Virtue: Graham and Alcott. Cleanliness as Public Policy: Griscom and Shattuck. Sanitary Reform on the Eve of War -- Ch. 2. A Wider War. Florence Nightingale's Good Example. The First Women Volunteers. Creating the Sanitary Commission. Olmsted Starts Inspecting. "A Woman's War" The South and the Freedpeople. Bringing Cleanliness Home from the War -- Ch. 3. City Cleansing. The Sanitary Lessons of the War. Epidemics and the Urgency of Water and Sewers. George Waring and the Sewering of America. Women as Municipal Housekeepers. Ada Sweet and a Cleaner Chicago. Waring Cleans Up New York City. Caroline Bartlett Crane Tests the Waring Model in Kalamazoo. Public and Private Cleanliness in the Progressive Era.