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Juliann Sivulka
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Stronger Than Dirt: A Cultural History of Advertising Personal Hygiene in America, 1875-1940 Paperback – September 1, 2001

by Juliann Sivulka (Author)
3.1 3.1 out of 5 stars 3 ratings
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Only a century ago the privilege of washing with soap was mainly a special prerogative of the well to do, and a bath was something most people avoided. But by the end of World War I a revolution in standards of personal hygiene had taken place. Soap was not only more widely used but was suddenly viewed as a powerful symbol of purification, civilization, and progress. What caused this radical shift in attitudes?In this fascinating cultural history, Juliann Sivulka shows that the transformation of soap from luxury product to everday staple and symbol of success was the result of both the newly emerging advertising industry and large-scale societal changes brought on by the modernization of daily life. The new emphasis on soap translated into more elaborate cleanliness rituals, creating in turn specialized places devoted to care of the body, more complex domestic interiors, and eventually new customers for an emerging consumer society.Making use of a large body of primary research material, Sivulka's study reveals that cleanliness came to symbolize a morally superior and civilized individual. Keeping clean, according to advertisements, was not only a healthy habit, it also ensured romance, material abundance, and acceptance into the successful white middle class. Advertisements also reflected women's changing roles as agents of cleanliness, as well as creators of mass cultural images that reinforced narrow stereotypes of both men's and women's role in society, which feminists later protested. The African American consumer culture and personal cleanliness rituals emerged in a pattern similar to their white counterparts but were informed by politics of appearance.This profusely illustrated study is full of insights about the development of the consumer culture that we all take for granted. Sivulka reveals many interesting connections between our attitudes toward cleanliness and conceptions of the body, inhabited space, social class, gender, and race.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    369 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Humanities Press
  4. Publication date
    September 1, 2001
  5. Dimensions
    6.07 x 0.76 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1573929522
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1573929523
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This new book by Sivulka (journalism and mass communications, Univ. of South Carolina) makes a good case that advertising was a major factor in Americans' heightened awareness of personal hygiene, which began in the middle of the 19th century. Sivulka concentrates on how soap, towel, and plumbing manufacturers used advertising in ever more sophisticated ways to convince Americans, especially women, that buying their products would improve their lives. He examines various advertising campaigns in some detail and considers the use of new forms of mass communication such as magazines and radio. He also looks at racial prejudices concerning cleanliness and how African Americans were influenced by hygiene advertising. This is not a history of hygiene little medical information is offered but instead a study of the role advertising played in shaping public opinion on commercial personal hygiene products. Scholarly, well documented, and clearly written, this book is definitely recommended for all libraries with advertising collections, but other libraries can perhaps pass on it. Lawrence R. Maxted, Gannon Univ., Erie, PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

..". well-researched ... nicely illustrated ... a welcome contribution to a small but growing body of advertising history."

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Humanities Press; Illustrated edition (September 1, 2001)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 369 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1573929522
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1573929523
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.12 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.07 x 0.76 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.1 3.1 out of 5 stars 3 ratings

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Juliann Sivulka

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Customer reviews

3.1 out of 5 stars
3.1 out of 5
3 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Ian Gordon
1.0 out of 5 stars Soft Soap
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2007
Sivulka used to teach at the University of South Carolina. She now teaches at Waseda in Japan. I did not care for this book when I reviewed it for the Journal of American History, (Vol. 89 (March 2003): 1450-1451) since I thought Sivulka had a lot of examples of advertising, but really could not analyze advertising or its broader cultural connotations very well. I was also struck by the absence from the bibliography of Susan Strasser's Satisfaction Guaranteed, which I thought an essential work to this study. Then I read Vincent Vinikas's review in the American Historical Review (Vol. 108 (June 2003): 851-52) and found more reasons not to respect this book. My advice is to read Vinikas's  Soft Soap, Hard Sell: American Hygiene in an Age of Advertisement
7 people found this helpful
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suzanne312
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing.
Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2003
Reads like a doctoral thesis; not very accessible. Some parts were interesting, though.
4 people found this helpful
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Carlos Vazquez Quintana
4.0 out of 5 stars entretenido y muy detallado
Reviewed in Spain on August 31, 2016
Verified Purchase
Me ha gutado mucho, porque creo que los libros que tratan de las pequeñas costumbres de un pais dicen también mucho. EEUU es el pais más limpio del mundo, y que además inició la costumbre de bañarse a diario junto con algunos otros pero no occidentales, como Japon. La historia de sus jabones y detergentes , de como se crearon y sofisticaron mientras en Europa el jabón escaseaba y se usaba lo imprescindible, es muy curiosa y enseña mucho.
Al menos es lo que pienso, sabiendo que a mucha gente estos asuntos le parecerán una banalidad, pero para mí que el jabón, detergentes y demás son tan signo de la revolución industrial como la máquina de vapor. Hay en ello la intención de un pais nuevo que tuvo y aun creo tiene, la intención de ser el mejor y por tanto el más limpio. Esto hoy creo está por demostrarse, y la excesiva higiene es mala, pero al filo de 1900 las cosas comenzaron así.
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