Finished We 7/17/13
A thoroughly entertaining and informative expose about everything you wanted to know about any foul or filthy substance such as mud, grime, dust, or excrement in Britain down through the ages. However, I definitely would not recommend eating while reading any part of this book because the descriptions of what conditions were like in the United Kingdom several centuries ago are so realistic you can almost 'smell' the graphic narration. There was no concern for sanitation whatsoever, and any care for air and water quality did not exist, and the book shows how the politics and culture of the age allowed this to occur.
The section about England's first cholera epidemic of 1831-1832 is especially horrifying, and the coverup by the authorities to keep the port city of Bradford open is beyond the pale. The descriptions of people crammed together in filthy hovels with absolutely no control over bodily functions was straight out of Dante, and the fact that Big Business wanted coal shipments to continue regardless of the loss of life sounds amazingly "Twenty-First Century".
And, I don't think I will ever be able to see a painting of an elegant 17th or 18th century aristocrat in an elaborate wig and refined clothing without remembering passages in the book that inform us that the wigs were most likely infested with lice and the sophisticated garments were never washed. The book is not an 'easy read', and has the feel of a college text, yet the meticulous descriptions of sanitary conditions of ages past are truly revelatory. And, it's really amazing that anyone could have lived through this.
Link to Amazon-
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0812814126
No comments:
Post a Comment