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| image from www.amazon.com |
Summary —
Sarah Albee’s book looks at a broad swath of historical periods, but with a particular interest on a narrow subject of human activity: how did different people throughout the ages handle pooping and peeing? While investigating that main question, she also asks what jobs were created for the purpose of getting rid of human and animal waste? The book is full of interesting historical facts of various time periods and is mostly organized chronologically, from pre-historic time and on through to the present. The author traces different ways civilizations have dealt with the problems of waste elimination, highlighting that the better that a civilization dealt with waste, the better things were for its citizens. As she points out, poop and other biological waste are vectors for various types of diseases, and a good public waterworks system that successfully handle wastewater apart from drinking water leads to cleaner living and less disease. As she points out, the bubonic plague of the fourteenth century was spread by fleas on rats that were drawn to heavily populated cities that could not adequately dispose of their waste. Likewise, poor water treatment was a factor in later cholera outbreaks of the nineteenth century. In addition to the main narrative, the book’s various chapters are further broken up with lively illustrations and side text, often discussing new terms (many for odd jobs dealing with waste removal). The book presents facts about water and food availability, people’s daily habits, and health/death records (when available) for a variety of time periods. She also gives historical facts about famous figures, such as Emperor Vespasian, who made his fortunes selling urine from public urinals to fullers. In one of the fun asides, we are told that one of Leonardo da Vinci’s plans for a toilet was to be installed in the palace of the French king Francois I; da Vinci died before his plans were realized. She also gives a brief introduction to Sir John Harington, godson to Queen Elizabeth, who first drew up plans for flush toilet in his pamphlet entitled The Metamorphosis of Ajax. And of course, she includes a section on Thomas Crapper, who had as many as nine different patents for plumbing-related inventions.
Lucien’s thoughts —
This is a fun and irreverent look at history from a slightly different perspective. The book is factual and well researched about sanitary conditions throughout history. As Albee points out in the introduction, “toilet talk is funny… where it isn’t amusing, at least it’s disgusting, which can be nearly as fun.” As a book aimed for later elementary and earlier middle-schoolers, Albee is gleefully aware of how much fun can be found in potty humor. The book is full of jokes, puns, and silly euphemisms. While intended for light-hearted reading, the book is a decent resource for further investigations, as it contains a pretty large section on her source material. It also has a pretty useful index in the back, if you are looking for a particular term or subject. I found the book to be full of interesting anecdotes of historical figures, from Emperor Vespasian to President Lyndon B. Johnson. This is a definitely the “number one book on number two”.
Librarian’s use —
This is a great book to use when introducing a history segment on the Black Death. While that is only one chapter in this book, it’s a topic in history that might easily be incorporated into a student’s history lesson on the Middle Ages and one of the world’s greatest plagues. It could likewise be used in conjunction with a history lesson on the cholera outbreaks of the nineteenth century.
One other idea is that because of its gross topic and simple text, this could be a great book to try to book talk for reluctant readers, particularly young boys. The side-bar text easily breaks up the chapter sections into smaller, tidbit-sized pieces of information. It also has a plenty of funny illustrations, and thus has plenty for a reluctant reader to latch on to. It could easily be paired up with other books like Bart King’s The Big Book of Gross Stuff, Susan E. Goodman’s The Truth About Poop, and Sylvia Branzei’s Grossology.
Other reviews —
Peters, J. (2010). Poop Happened!: A history of the world from the bottom up. Booklist, 196 (12), 75.
In an info-dump redolent with Gosh! Yuck! moments, Albee deposits a heaping history of human sanitation—or rather the lack thereof—and its effects. Developing the premise that three of the four means of spreading disease—air, water, touch, and insect bite—can be blamed on bad plumbing, she pumps out a steady stream of comments on the miasmic effects of urbanization, waste disposal, and the roles of (not) bathing in ancient Greece, Rome, medieval Europe (“The Age of Shovelry”), and the “Reeking Renaissance.” She then digs into the gradual adoption of better practices in the nineteenth century in response to recurrent epidemics of cholera and other horrors. The cartoon illustrations feature sludgy green highlights; frequent sidebars offer stomach-churning profiles of relevant “Yucky Occupations”; and if systematic scholarship isn’t exactly her fecal—er, focal—point (“Sorry about the Eurocentricity thing,” she burbles in the preface), she does close with generalized source notes. A good choice for readers who feel that Susan Goodman’s The Truth about Poop (2004) and Charise Mericle Harper’s Flush! The Scoop on Poop Through the Ages (2007) haven’t quite squeezed the last drop out of the topic.
Odom, B. (2010). Poop Happened!: A history of the world from the bottom up. School library journal, 56 (5), 126.
This self-proclaimed "number one book on number two" takes readers inside the fascinating world of excrement, ranging across the historical spectrum from "Hellenic Hygiene" to "How Do Astronauts Use the Toilet in Space?" Albee's focus is not only on bodily functions, but also on the larger public-health challenges created by mass urbanization in the ancient and modern world as well as the ability of societies to deal with these problems, which provides readers with an excellent introduction to social history. With a focus on the Western world in general and England in particular, the author touches on an array of topics from diseases such as cholera and plague to the development of increased sanitation in large urban areas such as London. The exciting format is comprised of a two-color (pastel green and blue) layout with numerous illustrations and photos. Interesting sidebars describe occupations and "hygiene heroes" such as Edwin Chadwick and bathroom fashion. The fluid writing style that ensnares and holds readers' attention from beginning to end. By bringing history alive, this captivating work is without a doubt an essential purchase.
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