Williams (history, Pace U.) details the public bath movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries--the origins, proponents, motives, achievements. Take note California--your drought may be permanent. This is a heavily revised thesis. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

An in-depth look at a popular and beautiful style of decorating guides homeowners through what many consider the most difficult phase of historic decorating, with a focus on both historical and contemporary elements and tips on what makes a room Victorian.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Have you ever wished you could live in an earlier, more romantic era? Ladies, welcome to the 19th century, where there's arsenic in your face cream, a pot of cold pee sits under your bed, and all of your underwear is crotchless. (Why? Shush, dear. A lady doesn't question.) UNMENTIONABLE is your hilarious, illustrated, scandalously honest (yet never crass) guide to the secrets of Victorian womanhood, giving you detailed advice on: ~ What to wear ~ Where to relieve yourself ~ How to conceal your loathsome addiction to menstruating ~ What to expect on your wedding night ~ How to be the perfect Victorian wife ~ Why masturbating will kill you ~ And more Irresistibly charming, laugh-out-loud funny, and featuring nearly 200 images from Victorian publications, UNMENTIONABLE will inspire a whole new level of respect for Elizabeth Bennett, Scarlet O'Hara, Jane Eyre, and all of our great, great grandmothers. (And it just might leave you feeling ecstatically grateful to live in an age of pants, super absorbency tampons, epidurals, anti-depressants, and not-dying-of-the-syphilis-your-husband-brought-home.)

Bath as Spa and Bath as Slum : The Social History of a Victorian City

When poet Fannie Toyne talked about her father, Charles Brother, which was hardly ever, she said her earliest memory was being thrown out a window. When Civil War Marine Charles Brother talked about "the boys," which was often, he talked of the pursuit of that prize ship and the Battle of Mobile Bay when Admiral Farragut reportedly cried out, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" Drenched in history and sea salt, The Boys of Bath is a saga of sacrifice and loyalty, exhibiting the few and proud men of rare, high spirit: the first to go in, not flinching for canon, shipwreck, or mines. Charles Brother wrote of life in Bath, New York, and in the barracks in Boston and Brooklyn, the New York Draft Riots, gunnery, targets, storms, and drilling with terrific shipmates-men who were agile and ready to fly in the ropes and through life-his fraternity. His story is about the bloody correction of the nineteenth century, made by grandsons of slave owners, a story relevant only to those who know well this business of being wrong about all of it-the true cost of sin against a race and the exit strategy, the unspoken promise to be silent, the pursuit of a prize, and the torpedo mines primed to give way to that switch, even those only in your head.

Delve into the history behind the glamorous baths and spas of Europe to reveal the hidden past of alternative treatments. Popular with people from Romans to royalty and hypochondriacs to holiday-makers, natural water spas have been a common feature in society since the first century. Even today, we periodically abandon the cities to 'take the waters'. In their heyday, Europe's spas were the main meeting places for aristocracy, politicians and cultural elites. They were the centres of political and diplomatic intrigue, and were fertile sources of artistic, literary and musical inspiration. The spas epitomised style and were renowned for their cosmopolitan atmosphere in a glittering whirl of balls, gambling and affairs, as much as for their healing waters. Health, Hedonism and Hypochondria reveals the hidden histories of traditional spas of Europe, including such well-known resorts as the original Spa in Belgium; Bath, Buxton and Harrogate in Britain; Baden-Baden and Bad Ems in Germany; Vichy and Aix-les-Bains in France; Bad Ragaz in Switzerland; Bad Ischl and Baden bei Wien in Austria and Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázne in the Czech Republic. At once luxurious sanctuaries of relaxation and resorts of the upper classes, these spas were also the haunts of melancholics, scoundrels and those seeking escape and excitement.