Book Review: The Bathroom: A Social History of Cleanliness and the Body

Abstract

Alison Hoagland has written a thought-provoking book on the history of the smallest room in the house that no one talks about. The Bathroom: A Social History of Cleanliness and the Body, delves into the history, evolution, psychology, and socioeconomic implications of the American bathroom and its development from the Civil War onwards. She demonstrates how much of the discourse around cleanliness, sanitation, consumerism, and technology has come to be centered on the bathroom in the United States, and discusses the many forms this takes in advertising, public health, and urban and rural infrastructure.