Clean and Decent: The Fascinating History of the Bathroom and the Water-Closet

Who would have supposed that the Romans had lagged hot-water pipes? That Queen Elizabeth I had a valve water-closet? That Louis IV had cushions in his bath? This informative and hilarious book leads the reader to believe that more may be learned about the past from bathrooms than from battlefields, and that patterns of social history are mirrored in the bathwater.