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

Introduction Chapter One Monday Washday - class and the ideal organisation of cleanliness 1. Cleanliness, Dirt and Health - Dirty cities - Invisible germs 2. Cleanliness, Dirt and the Boundaries of Class - Cleanliness and anthropology - Observing the dirty poor - Metaphors of purity and filth - Other and unimaginable men - Wives and mothers 3. Order and Repetition in the Work of Cleanliness - Ordering the tasks of cleanliness in everyday life - Regularity and order - Rhythms, cycles and the myths of everyday life Chapter Two The Place Where My Mother Could Always be Found - working-class domesticity, gender and cleanliness 1. The Material Practice of Cleanliness - An anatomy of dirt - Washing - Bathing - Cleaning 2. Mother and Home - Home in everyday life - The idealised mother - For love and money - Children helping - Cleanliness, dirt and the spatial arrangement of the home 3. Cleanliness and Working-class Consumption Chapter Three No Rubbing, No Scrubbing - cleanliness in commercial discourse 1. Soap - Soap as a product of 'universal consumption' - Soap brands and advertising techniques 2. An Analysis of Soap Advertising, 1880-1914 - Advertising and the periodical - Soap, the sea and invisible germs - Thrift, regularity and pleasure - Women's work in soap advertisements - The consuming wife and mother 3. A Sunlight Demonstration Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index