The modern bathroom is an ingenious compilation of locked doors smooth porcelain 4-ply tissue
and antibacterial hand soap but despite this miracle of indoor plumbing we still can't bear
the thought that anyone else should know that our bodies produce waste. Why must we live by the
rules of this intense scatological embarrassment? In Spectacles of Waste leading historian of
medicine Warwick Anderson reveals how human excrement has always complicated humanity's
attempts to become modern. From wastewater epidemiology and sewage snooping to fecal
transplants and excremental art he argues that our insistence on separating ourselves from our
bodily waste has fundamentally shaped our philosophies social theories literature and
art--even the emergence of high-tech science as we understand it today. Written with verve and
aplomb Anderson's expert analysis reveals how in recent years humanity has doubled down on
abstracting and datafying our most abject waste and unconsciously underlined its biopolitical
signature across our lives.
