1st Edition

Hygiene in World History

By Peter N. Stearns Copyright 2026
178 Pages
by Routledge

178 Pages
by Routledge

178 Pages
by Routledge

This book features a global, historical analysis of the changes and continuities in one of society’s basic functions: seeking to protect itself from disease. Hygiene offers an important lens for major aspects of world and comparative history. The volume explores the ways different regions and major religions approached hygiene both before modern times and through the present with the... Read more

1. Introduction: Hygiene and History  2. Early Stages of Human Hygiene: from hunting and gathering to early civilizations  3. Hygiene Advances, Limitations and Styles in Classical and Postclassical Societies, c.800 BCE -1500 CE  4. Toward More Explicit Hygiene, 1500-1800  5. Hygiene in the Modern World: themes and challenges  6. The Hygiene Revolution in the West, 1800-1920s  7. Hygiene and Imperialism  8. Independence Outside the West, 1850-1950: Hygiene in Latin America, the Middle East and Japan  9. Communist Revolutions and Hygiene  10. Beyond the Sanitary Revolution: Western societies in the 20th century  11. Hygiene and Globalization, 1970s-2020s  12. Main Themes and New Directions

Biography

Peter N. Stearns is Distinguished University Professor of History Emeritus, at George Mason University, United States. In both teaching and writing he has worked to explore major topics in a world history framework, as in his book on Punishment in World History. This new book, on hygiene, also relates to his interest in the history of emotions, where he has helped to develop a major research field.