How The Toilet Changed History

How the Toilet Changed History examines the invention of the toilet and explores how improving sanitation has changed cities and human health. Features include essential facts, a glossary, selected bibliography, websites, source notes, and an index, plus a timeline and maps, charts, and diagrams. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Background stories of everyday items, including the blender, the fire extinguisher, the cheese grater, the toiler, deodorant, Post Its, fabric softener, the clock radio.--From publisher description.

In the beginning, potty time meant the great outdoors . . . People have been going potty since, well, since the beginning of people! Ever wonder what humans used before potties or paper? You might be surprised at the clever tools that humans came up with over the centuries. From the great outdoors to ceramic pots, bum brushes and bidets, prepare for an adventure as we explore the interesting and sometimes shocking history of human potty practices! Award-winning children’s author Sophia Gholz and illustrator Xiana Teimoy team up to put a humorous spin on the fun and fascinating facts surrounding the history of toilet paper (and other potty tools) in this delightful book.

A landmark work of narrative history, Paris 1919 is the first full-scale treatment of the Peace Conference in more than twenty-five years. It offers a scintillating view of those dramatic and fateful days when much of the modern world was sketched out, when countries were created—Iraq, Yugoslavia, Israel—whose troubles haunt us still. Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize • Winner of the PEN Hessell Tiltman Prize • Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize Between January and July 1919, after “the war to end all wars,” men and women from around the world converged on Paris to shape the peace. Center stage, for the first time in history, was an American president, Woodrow Wilson, who with his Fourteen Points seemed to promise to so many people the fulfillment of their dreams. Stern, intransigent, impatient when it came to security concerns and wildly idealistic in his dream of a League of Nations that would resolve all future conflict peacefully, Wilson is only one of the larger-than-life characters who fill the pages of this extraordinary book. David Lloyd George, the gregarious and wily British prime minister, brought Winston Churchill and John Maynard Keynes. Lawrence of Arabia joined the Arab delegation. Ho Chi Minh, a kitchen assistant at the Ritz, submitted a petition for an independent Vietnam. For six months, Paris was effectively the center of the world as the peacemakers carved up bankrupt empires and created new countries. This book brings to life the personalities, ideals, and prejudices of the men who shaped the settlement. They pushed Russia to the sidelines, alienated China, and dismissed the Arabs. They struggled with the problems of Kosovo, of the Kurds, and of a homeland for the Jews. The peacemakers, so it has been said, failed dismally; above all they failed to prevent another war. Margaret MacMillan argues that they have unfairly been made the scapegoats for the mistakes of those who came later. She refutes received ideas about the path from Versailles to World War II and debunks the widely accepted notion that reparations imposed on the Germans were in large part responsible for the Second World War. Praise for Paris 1919 “It’s easy to get into a war, but ending it is a more arduous matter. It was never more so than in 1919, at the Paris Conference. . . . This is an enthralling book: detailed, fair, unfailingly lively. Professor MacMillan has that essential quality of the historian, a narrative gift.” —Allan Massie, The Daily Telegraph (London)

In a series of essays, several noted thinkers explain how historical and contemporary design of public restrooms reflects cultural attitudes towards gender, class and disability. Simultaneous. Hardcover available.

This mind-blowing volume explores the fascinating stories behind innovations that play an integral part in our lives. From cement to LEDs and the alphabet to 3D printing, the book explains the science behind ground-breaking inventions while emphasizing the evolution of the scientific method. The book is packed with full-color photographs, interesting facts, and important vocabulary terms.

A globe-spanning thriller of love and betrayal about a mysterious first lady with an explosive secret. Paris, 1974. Lara Orlov and her family arrive from Moscow at the height of the Cold War, thanks to her father’s position as a diplomat. The years pass, and Lara becomes more and more enamored with the City of Lights. As a teenager in Paris, she falls deeply in love with a fellow Russian expat: the passionate, intellectual Sasha, who opens her eyes to the ills of the Soviet Union. Decades later and across the globe, journalist Sofie Morse is taking some much-needed time off after several chaotic years covering Washington politics. But when she gets a call from the office of First Lady Lara Caine, her curiosity is piqued. Sofie, like the rest of the world, knows little about Lara—only that she was born in Soviet Russia and raised in Paris before marrying Henry Caine, the brash future president. After decades of silence, Lara is finally ready to speak candidly about her past: about her father’s work for the KGB and about her ill-fated relationship with Sasha—which may be long in the past, but which could have explosive ramifications for the future. As Sofie begins to write Lara’s biography, she can’t help but wonder: Why is Lara revealing such sensitive information? And why now? Caught in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, both Lara and Sofie must ask themselves what really matters—and confront their own power to upend the global political order.

Black & White Edition How did people clean their rear ends before the invention of paper? The ancient Greeks used stones! Really! This rear-window view of the history of the world also details how the kings and queens of England and France wiped their royal asses? Not like you and I. What does Judaism, Islam and Buddhism have to say about this act? Surprisingly a lot. How did an ass-kisser -- that is, man who actually kissed his patron's ass -- almost become Pope. Who is the real father of toilet paper? You won't find the answer on the Internet. Why do most people in the world think that wiping with paper is disgusting? Is there a better way? This is the first book to present a fully-documented history of the act that every human being has done every day since the beginning of time.