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Dealing with human wastes was a huge problem in cities at the beginning of the 19th century. The ways in which sewage and sanitation were handled (or not) often led to large-scale outbreaks of disease that killed thousands of people every year, and sometimes even more bizarre and spectacular disasters like the Great Stink of London (1858) or the infamous SS Princess Alice sinking. By 1920, though, at least in North America and Western Europe, huge strides had been made to alleviate the poop problem. This video traces the development of sanitation technology and practices, the thinking that made them possible, and the stories of some of the people prominent in the history of urban poop. It's a smelly episode of environmental history, but may be more interesting than you might have thought at first!

Minor correction: at 38:55, I mention that the Palace of Westminster was completed in 1840; actually it was begun in that year (minor construction continued for many years after that).

Sources for this video include Martin V. Melosi, The Sanitary City (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008); Jamie Benidickson, The Culture of Flushing: A Social & Legal History of Sewage (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007); William Cronon, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1991); Stephen Halliday, The Great Stink of London (Cheltenham, UK: The History Press, 2023 ed.); Stephen Halliday, "Death and Miasma in Victorian London: An Obstinate Belief," BMJ: British Medical Journal, Vol. 323, No. 7327 (December 2001), 1469, [ Ссылка ]; Kathryn S. Meier, "'No Place for the Sick': Nature's War on Civil War Soldier Mental & Physical Health in the 1862 Peninsula and Shenandoah Valley Campaigns," Journal of the Civil War Era, Vol. 1, No. 2 (June 2011), 176, [ Ссылка ]; May Stone, "The Plumbing Paradox: American Attitudes Toward Late 19th Century Domestic Sanitary Arrangements," Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn 1979), 283, [ Ссылка ]; and Joel Tarr, James McCurley, Francis McMichael & Terry Yosie, "Water and Wastes: A Retrospective Assessment of Wastewater Technology in the United States, 1800-1932," Technology and Culture, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Apr. 1984), 226, [ Ссылка ].

Special thanks to Austin Pierce.

Access to sanitation and toilets is still a major problem for a huge segment of the human population. The World Toilet Organization is working on that. Their website: [ Ссылка ]

My website: [ Ссылка ]
My Ko-fi: [ Ссылка ]
My blog: [ Ссылка ]

Chapters:
00:00-11:12: A Tale of Two Poos
11:12-25:18: Miasma
25:18-36:57: The Toilet Revolution
36:57-47:40: The Great Stink
47:40-1:05:51: Out of the Muck
1:05:51-1:15:03: Ladies and Germs
1:15:03-1:29:32: Blundering Toward Cleanliness
1:29:32-1:39:53: The Great Aerators
1:39:53-1:50:57: What Happened to Everyone & Conclusion

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