Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Soap and Water: Cleanliness, Dirt and the Working Classes in Victorian and Edwardian Britain

Soap and Water: Cleanliness, Dirt and the Working Classes in Victorian and Edwardian Britain

Kelley, Victoria

Hardcover

General World HistoryBritish History

ISBN10: 1848850522
ISBN13: 9781848850521
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: Jun 30 2010
Pages: 256
Weight: 1.14
Height: 1.00 Width: 6.20 Depth: 9.30
Language: English

From whitened doorsteps to polished boots, starched pinafores to scrubbed floors, this is the compelling story of how Victorians and Edwardians engaged in the pursuit of cleanliness and the battle against grime in domestic life. It is the first book to uncover how cleanliness and dirt were perceived and understood at a period of history when they were an overwhelming preoccupation. Victoria Kelley explores this period of important change, particularly for the working classes when, as Jose Harris comments, 'whole worlds of meaning were conveyed by microscopic household practices, such as whether one washed ...in the bathroom or the bedroom, or at the kitchen sink'. Kelley quotes social surveys, advice literature, autobiographies and soap advertisements, to examine how the extreme poverty of many was being interrogated by the official agencies seeking the means to alleviate it. Cleanliness and dirt became part of both a material and a moral landscape, with working-class women and their domestic work scrutinised in particular.

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