Holy Crap!
The History and Evolution of Human Waste and Sanitation
Every human being does it. Every society has had to deal with it since the beginning of civilization. And yet we rarely talk about it.
Holy Crap! is the fascinating, disgusting, surprising—and often funny—history and evolution of sanitation: how humans have dealt with their waste from ancient cesspits and primitive toilets to modern sewers and sewage treatment.
Along the way, we discover what happens when waste gets into our water, our food, our streets, our battlefields, our rivers and our oceans—and why sanitation, although seldom discussed, is one of the most important and revealing stories in human history.
So flush your inhibitions and come along for the ride.
It's going to be one hell of a crappy story.
Table of Contents
No Sanitation?
Famous Sanitation and Water Disasters
Nature's Sanitation System
Water: Why Sanitation Matters
Animal Farms Mess with Nature's System
Disease and Sanitation
Defecation, Toilet Paper, and Sex
Clothing and Going to the Bathroom
The Trojan War Washroom
Waste in the Trenches
Evolution of Sanitation
Evolution of Flush Toilets
What Happens After We Flush
Sewers: The Underground Civilization
People Who Deal With Crap
Toilet to Table
Developing Nations
World's Worst Sanitation
China and India
Cuba In Crisis
Sanitation in the Developed World
World's Best Sanitation
Sanitation at Three Woodstocks
Two Severns: One Lesson
World's Largest Bathrooms
Mediterranean Under Pressure
The Great Lakes
Arctic and Antarctic Sanitation
The Business of Poop
From Space to Earth
Defecation, Urination, and Art
Movies and Television Get Down to Business
