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