Chasing Dirt

Americans in the early 19th century were, as one foreign traveller bluntly put it, filthy, bordering on the beastly--perfectly at home in dirty, bug-infested, malodorous surroundings. Many a home swarmed with flies, barnyard animals, dust, and dirt; clothes were seldom washed; men hardly ever shaved or bathed. Yet gradually all this changed, and today, Americans are known worldwide for their obsession with cleanliness--for their sophisticated plumbing, daily bathing, shiny hair and teeth, and spotless clothes. In Chasing Dirt, Suellen Hoy provides a colorful history of this remarkable transformation from dreadfully dirty to cleaner than clean, ranging from the pre-Civil War era to the 1950s, when American's obsession with cleanliness reached its peak.
Hoy offers here a fascinating narrative, filled with vivid portraits of the men and especially the women who helped America come clean. She examines the work of early promoters of cleanliness, such as Catharine Beecher and Sylvester Graham; and describes how the Civil War marked a turning point in our attitudes toward cleanliness, discussing the work of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, headed by Frederick Law Olmsted, and revealing how the efforts of Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War inspired American women--such as Dorothea Dix, Clara Barton, and Louisa May Alcott--to volunteer as nurses during the war. We also read of the postwar efforts of George E. Waring, Jr., a sanitary engineer who constructed sewer systems around the nation and who, as head of New York City's street-cleaning department, transformed the city from the nation's dirtiest to the nation's cleanest in three years. Hoy details the efforts to convince African-Americans and immigrants of the importance of cleanliness, examining the efforts of Booker T. Washington (who preached the gospel of the toothbrush), Jane Addams at Hull House, and Lillian Wald at the Henry Street Settlement House. Indeed, we see how cleanliness gradually shifted from a way to prevent disease to a way to assimilate, to become American. And as the book enters the modern era, we learn how advertising for soaps, mouth washes, toothpastes, and deodorants in mass-circulation magazines showed working men and women how to cleanse themselves and become part of the increasingly sweatless, odorless, and successful middle class. Shower for success!
By illuminating the historical roots of America's shift from dreadfully dirty to squeaky clean, Chasing Dirt adds a new dimension to our understanding of our national culture. And along the way, it provides colorful and often amusing social history as well as insight into what makes Americans the way we are today.


Readers will never look upon their surroundings or their personal hygiene in quite the same way.--Science

Lively and reassuring....Thorough, accurate, and very readable.--The Boston Sunday Globe

A tour de force of social history, --American Heritage

Deft and fascinating.--The Women's Review of Books

The pursuit of Americans from filth and devilness to cleanliness and godliness is clearly and wittily detailed here.--Journal of American Culture

Anyone reading Hoy's book will recall their own experiences with the U.S. edict of cleanliness. Reading the book gives one a greater appreciation for the conditions which necessitated the movement for cleanliness.--The Journal of Consumer Affairs

Suellen Hoy's broadly researched book on the pursuit of cleanliness in the United States is entertaining and full of interesting facts.--The Journal of American History

A fascinating review of American social history from a new perspective, one that offers fresh ideas on gender relations, environmental issues, and the underpinnings of our national identity.--Benjamin Orlove, Professor of Environmental Studies, University of California, Davis

Hoy's social history is at its best when it traces the evolution of women's burdens to cook, wash dishes, scrub floors, beat rugs, launder linens, make grocery lists, do the shopping--and then take care of the kids.--In These Times

When it came to controlling disease through public hygiene, women played a crucial role....During the Crimean War, what well-known medical figure pioneered sanitation in battlefield hospitals? Florence Nightingale. During the Civil War, what famous author steeled herself against the 'vilest odors that ever assaulted the human nose' and, along with her fellow nurses, scrubbed wagonloads of Union wounded? Louisa May Alcott.'--Vogue

Sprightly and informative account of American cleanliness....Hoy's account of the American pursuit of cleanliness skirts the tangled psychology and sociology of dirty and clean....She has a genuinely upbeat story to tell. The pursuit of cleanliness brought us hot water and the stall shower, benefits of civilization few Americans would care to relinquish.--The New Republic

Chasing Dirt is neat! Suellen Hoy has scoured the country for source material on the history of cleanliness. She has addressed her subject with a very dry wit and impeccable scholarship. The result is exciting social history: free of jargon dustballs, insightful, cutting close to the bone of our national fixation.--Ruth Schwartz Cowan, author of More Work for Mother

A spirited account of changing American mores.--Kirkus Reviews

Offers the first systematic analysis of America's preoccupation with cleanliness. Hoy has unearthed a fascinating array of material related to this neglected subject and has woven it into a finely textured narrative, rich in color and inishgt. She makes social history come alive with interest and significance....[R]equired reading for all those interested in the relationship between sanitary philosophy and public policy.--David E. Shi, President, Furman University

An exciting blend of environmental and social history that examines the nation's fascination with keeping itself clean and healthy. In a graceful and witty narrative, Hoy traces the campaigns and crusades that transformed American attitudes toward dirt. She is especially persuasive and informed on the key role that women played in this significant historical process. The result is a fine book that should have wide appeal to readers everywhere.--Lewis L. Gould, author of Lady Bird Johnson and the Environment

Suellen Hoy tells the captivating story of how cleanliness found its rank 'next to godliness' in the United States. She gives soap and water the central place they deserve in American social history. Students of health reform, business, ethnicity, urban planning, domesticity, and education will all learn from Hoy's account of a fundamental transformation in American culture and life.--Donna R. Gabaccia, Charles H. Stone Professor of American History, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Fascinating social history.--Booklist

Exhaustively researched social history of America's evolution from incredible filth to obsessive cleanliness....Chasing Dirt excels in laying out the facts of the sanitation movement itself, of the few men and...the many women whose tireless efforts combined to transform America from the grimy butt of Europe's contempt to the antiseptic target of its bewilderment.--Baltimore Sun

What's striking about her subject is its complexity....Chronicles the evolution of American attitudes toward hygiene...--The Chicago Tribune

Groundbreaking social history.--Notre Dame Magazine

An in-depth look at what had become, by the mid-20th century at least, a defining characteristic of middle-class Americans....A very welcome study. Hoy has given us much to think about.--Technology and Culture

In this well-written study, the author explores how the United States became obsessed with cleanliness....[T]houghtful and well-researched.--The Historian