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The History of Shit is scatological in every sense. Dominique Laporte’s
decidedly Left Bank, tongue-in-cheek 1978 essay, “Histoire de la Merde”,
is newly translated into English. His central idea is that manners in the
matter of excrement maketh man. Savages shat in the woods. We have largely
organised our lives and our cities around the need for its clean, odour-free
disposal. Bullshit? Well, maybe. But fun. Published by MIT Press, £13.50,
ISBN 0262122251.