The Story Behind Toilets

Where can you find a twelve-seater toilet? Why did castle moats smell so disgusting? What was the 'Great Stink'? To uncover the hidden facts behind everyday things, explore the secrets of True Stories. True Stories reveals the surprising truth about a range of subjects. Discover everything you could wish to know, and some things you'll wish you didn't, about a huge range of topics!

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.

Adults don't talk about the business of doing our business. We work on one assumption: the world of public bathrooms is problem- and politics-free. No Place To Go: Answering the Call of Nature in the Urban Jungle reveals the opposite is true. No Place To Go is a toilet tour from London to San Francisco to Toronto and beyond. From pay potties to deserted alleyways, No Place To Go is a marriage of urbanism, social narrative, and pop culture that shows the ways — momentous and mockable — public bathrooms just don't work. Like, for the homeless, who, faced with no place to go sometimes literally take to the streets. (Ever heard of a municipal poop map?) For people with invisible disabilities, such as Crohn’s disease, who stay home rather than risk soiling themselves on public transit routes. For girls who quit sports teams because they don’t want to run to the edge of the pitch to pee. Celebrities like Lady Gaga and Bruce Springsteen have protested bathroom bills that will stomp on the rights of transpeople. And where was Hillary Clinton after she arrived back to the stage late after the first commercial break of the live-televised Democratic leadership debate in December 2015? Stuck in a queue for the women’s bathroom. Peel back the layers on public bathrooms and it’s clear many more people want for good access than have it. Public bathroom access is about cities, society, design, movement, and equity. The real question is: Why are public toilets so crappy?

"Describes the history of the toilet, and how people dealt with human waste prior to its invention"--Publisher.

Number one or number two, they are always big jobs! But do you ever wonder what toilets looked like in the olden times? And are they different in other countries? Get ready to take a peek into toilets across space and time!A fun reader for anyone who has ever wondered how the toilet came to be invented.

"Traces the history of the invention of the toilet, from the earliest attempts of ancient civilizations to the modern flush toilet design"--

Describes the history behind such inventions as toilets, telephones, frozen food, soccer nets, and safety razors.

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.