Smell Detectives: An Olfactory History of Nineteenth-Century Urban America
By Melanie A. Kiechle and Paul S. Sutter
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
What did nineteenth-century cities smell like? And how did odors matter in the formation of a modern environmental consciousness? Smell Detectives follows the nineteenth-century Americans who used their noses to make sense of the sanitary challenges caused by rapid urban and industrial growth. Melanie Kiechle examines nuisance complaints, medical writings, domestic advice, and myriad discussions of what constituted fresh air, and argues that nineteenth-century city dwellers, anxious about the air they breathed, attempted to create healthier cities by detecting and then mitigating the most menacing odors.
Medical theories in the nineteenth century assumed that foul odors caused disease and that overcrowded cities—filled with new and stronger stinks—were synonymous with disease and danger. But the sources of offending odors proved difficult to pinpoint. The creation of city health boards introduced new conflicts between complaining citizens and the officials in charge of the air. Smell Detectives looks at the relationship between the construction of scientific expertise, on the one hand, and “common sense”—the olfactory experiences of common people—on the other. Although the rise of germ theory revolutionized medical knowledge and ultimately undid this form of sensory knowing, Smell Detectives recovers how city residents used their sense of smell and their health concerns about foul odors to understand, adjust to, and fight against urban environmental changes.
Related to Smell Detectives
Related ebooks
Handbook of Perception Volume 6A Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Perception of Odors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Essence of Provence: The Story of L'Occitane Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmelling to Survive: The Amazing World of Our Sense of Smell Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Poppy: A Cultural History from Ancient Egypt to Flanders Fields to Afghanistan Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Origin of Feces, The: What Excrement Tells Us About Evolution, Ecology, and a Sustainable Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aromatics and the Soul: A Study of Smells Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPot Doc: A Physician's Search for the Holy Grail of Medical Marijuana Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Perfume Lover: A Personal History of Scent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Rainbow Palate: How Chemical Dyes Changed the West’s Relationship with Food Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPressed Plants: Making a Herbarium Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe History of the World in 100 Plants Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNot Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5About Method: Experimenters, Snake Venom, and the History of Writing Scientifically Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSlime: How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The History and Natural History of Spices: The 5,000-Year Search for Flavour Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWaste and the Wasters: Poetry and Ecosystemic Thought in Medieval England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSilent Spring at 50: The False Crises of Rachel Carson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistory of the Air and Other Smells in Mexico City 1840-1900 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAgents of Apocalypse: Epidemic Disease in the Colonial Philippines Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Nature of Being Human: From Environmentalism to Consciousness Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Invention of Comfort: Sensibilities and Design in Early Modern Britain and Early America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Topography of Wellness: How Health and Disease Shaped the American Landscape Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nature and Culture in the Early Modern Atlantic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTaming Infection: The American Response to Illness from Smallpox to Covid Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPollution and the Death of Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSlow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Culture of Feedback: Ecological Thinking in Seventies America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPenn's Luminous City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUncivilised Genes: Human evolution and the urban paradox Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Medical For You
Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina: Separating the Myth from the Medicine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Adult ADHD: How to Succeed as a Hunter in a Farmer's World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women With Attention Deficit Disorder: Embrace Your Differences and Transform Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diabetes Code: Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mediterranean Diet Meal Prep Cookbook: Easy And Healthy Recipes You Can Meal Prep For The Week Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ (Revised Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Herbal Healing for Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5WomanCode: Perfect Your Cycle, Amplify Your Fertility, Supercharge Your Sex Drive, and Become a Power Source Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Peptide Protocols: Volume One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"Cause Unknown": The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021 & 2022 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Holistic Herbal: A Safe and Practical Guide to Making and Using Herbal Remedies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tight Hip Twisted Core: The Key To Unresolved Pain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Living Daily With Adult ADD or ADHD: 365 Tips o the Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 40 Day Dopamine Fast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Smell Detectives
2 ratings0 reviews