A Brief History of Nakedness
'Philip Carr-Gomm has an idea: Stop reading and take off your clothes' - Chronicle of Higher Education 'Being naked in public can be fun, or naughty, or provocative, or health-giving, or political. It is almost always illegal. And, as anyone who has visited a nudist resort can testify, it is rarely, if ever, sexy. But, as Philip Carr-Gomm reveals in his academic romp through two millenniums of public exhibitionism from the ancient Greeks to animal-rights activists, you can be naked anywhere. You are only nude if someone is watching. Nakedness on its own is straightforward - it's the context and the audience of nudity that make it interesting ... wonderful illustrations' - Sunday Times 'Once you've finished this thought-provoking book, go back to the mirror. Slip off the bathrobe and have another look. Unless you were reading it in the waiting room of a plastic surgeon, nothing much will have changed. Yet something seems different. If it weren't anatomically impossible, you'd swear your whole body was smiling.' - Daily Telegraph