"Foul Bodies":Sanitation, Disease, and Social Strife in the Continental Army

TALK DESCRIPTION:

Kathleen Brown’s book, Foul Bodies explores changing cultural attitudes toward “dirt” and cleanliness in Early America, which has particular relevance to the army encamped at Valley Forge from 1777 to 1778. Foul Bodies traces cultural standards of cleanliness from Europe's early Atlantic encounters through to the American Civil War, encompassing issues of religion, health, gender, class, and race relations. During the American Revolution, officers and staff in the Continental Army enforced sanitation standards on the soldiering class—with the goal of preventing disease outbreaks. Control of personal hygiene became a public matter and led to social strife and class conflict between the ranks. Perceptions of cleanliness—and the lack of it—had moral, religious, and often sexual implications in early American culture.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

Kathleen Brown is the David Boies Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. A historian of gender and race in early America and the Atlantic World, she is author of Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs (UNC, 1996), which won the Dunning Prize of the American Historical Association. Her second book, Foul Bodies: Cleanliness in Early America (Yale, 2009), received the Society of the History of the Early American Republic Book Prize, and the Organization of American Historians’ Lawrence Levine Book Prize for cultural history.

Brown is also author of numerous articles and essays. She has been a fellow of the Omohundro Institute for Early American Studies at the College of William and Mary, the American Antiquarian Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

University webpage: https://live-sas-www-history.pantheon.sas.upenn.edu/people/faculty/kathleen-m-brown

Sale page for Foul Bodies

You can purchase Kathleen's book AND support the Valley Forge Park Alliance at the same time when you choose the Park Alliance as your charity on Amazon Smile! Purchase Foul Bodies on Amazon Smile

MODERATOR BIOGRAPHY:

George Wunderlich is the Director of the United States Army Medical Department Museum at Joint Base San Antonio Fort Sam Houston. Previously he was Executive Director of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine where he previously held the position of Director of Education. He is also former Assistant Director of Human Formation at Mount St. Mary's Seminary. In 1995 Mr. Wunderlich was awarded the Daughters of the American Revolution National Medal of Honor for his work in public history. Since then he has developed historically-based medical leadership training programs for the Joint Medical Executive Skills Institute, The United State Army Medical Department (AMEDD) the Interagency Institute for Federal Health Care Executives, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and various other civilian and governmental organizations. In 2011 he was awarded the Order of Military Medical Merit by Army Surgeon General Lieutenant General Eric B. Schoomaker for his support of military medicine. He is a nationally known speaker on various Civil War topics and can be regularly seen on the History Channel, PBS, National Geographic and the British Broadcasting Corporation. George and His wife, Dr. Irene Wunderlich Ed.D live in San Antonio Texas.

Note: you must be signed into your Amazon Smile account and chose the Valley Forge Park Alliance as your supporting charity. For more information on signing up for Amazon Smile, visit Sign up for Amazon Smile

We have reached our goal of 75 attendees, and have added a second bonus talk for the month, FREE for everyone!

Tuesday, January 19, 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm - A talk by Historian Don H. Hagist-Noble Volunteers: the British Soldiers who fought the American Revolution

Were British soldiers really “the scum of the earth,” as Wellington once said? Beyond the myths, who was your average British Redcoat? Hagist reveals how a peacetime army trained for war, how professional soldiers adapted to the American tactical situation, and what became of the thousands of veterans at the war’s conclusion.