"Too much bathing was seen as a sign of dirtiness. Why would clean people have to wash so ofter? No matter. Personal hygiene changed drastically, so that commoners of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century often lived clearner than the kings and queens of a century earlier."
"Gains to knowledge have not been evenly distributed, even within rich nations. We live in a world of inequality and diversity. This world is divided roughly into three kinds of nations: those that spend lots of money to keep their weight down; those whose people eat to live; ant those whose people d"
"The old division of the world into two powper blocs, East and West, has subsided. Now the big challenge and threat is the gap in wealth and health that separates rich and poor. These are ofter styled North and South, because the division is geographic; but a more accurate signifier would be the West"
"I propose to approach these problems historically...But I do so also because the best way to understand a problem is to ask: How and why did we get where we are? How did the rich countries get so rich? Why are the poor countries so poor?"
"When Harvard simply abolished its geography department after World War II, hardly a voice protested- outside the small group of those dismissed. Subsequently a string of leading universities- Michigan, Northwestern, Chicago, Columbia- followed suit, again without serious objection."
"Every French grammar school student used to learn the story of the vase of Soissons, a beautiful object robbed from a church by the Franks in war against the Gauls. The chief Clovis wanted to return it, by way of giving pleasure to a Christian woman who had won his fancy, but the soldier who had tak"