Peter Ward is professor emeritus of history at the University of British Columbia and the author of several books on the social history of Canada and the history of population health.
"As The Clean Body makes clear, the hygiene revolution was tied in
with the rise of consumerism and its concomitant exploitation of
natural resources — things that have contributed greatly to our
current environmental tipping point." The Montreal Gazette
"In The Clean Body: A Modern History [Ward] promises to tell the
story of the 'cleanliness revolution,' offering cleanliness as a
lens through which to view a society in transition, whether
culturally, technologically, or scientifically." Our environmental
woes too are the logical conclusion to a history of growing
consumption, of things as well as resources. As Ward writes, "Once
an element of nature, [water] had become a commodity, an engineered
product of the industrial economy, ... its presence in everyday
life taken utterly for granted."" Literary Review of Canada
"The Clean Body is a beautifully written tour de force, a
wonderfully accessible book, and a joy to read. Peter Ward draws
extensively on the literature in four languages and moves with ease
between rich empirical detail, theoretical soundings, and
socioeconomic data." Brian Lewis, McGill University and co-editor
of The Moral Mapping of Victorian and Edwardian London: Charles
Booth, Christian Charity, and the Poor-but-Respectable
"A thoughtful and thought-provoking discussion of practices that we
would be mistaken to think of as natural or normal. Its study of
centuries of hygiene is a prompt for us to reconsider our
present-day pursuit of cleanliness." Winnipeg Free Press
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