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,...
From whitened doorsteps to polished boots, starched pinafores to scrubbed floors, this is the compelling story of how Victorians and Edwardians eng...
