'Powder & Poverty' explores the stark contrast between opulence and destitution in 17th-century France, where perfumed nobility shared streets with squalor and human waste. Through meticulous examination of parish records, medical documents, and personal accounts, the book reconstructs daily life during this pivotal period, focusing on how common people navigated severe public health challenges, rigid social hierarchies, and harsh urban living conditions.
The narrative unfolds across three comprehensive sections, beginning with an examination of physical environments and urban infrastructure, followed by an exploration of public health challenges and mortality rates, and concluding with an analysis of how communities developed survival strategies across social classes. What makes this work particularly valuable is its innovative approach to combining demographic data with social history, incorporating archaeological findings to present a multifaceted view of daily life in both urban and rural settings.
By examining how environmental conditions and social disparities shaped human experience, the book challenges traditional historical narratives that typically focus on political and aristocratic perspectives. The author's use of extensive archival research, including municipal documents and personal correspondence from multiple French provinces, provides readers with a groundbreaking perspective on how everyday challenges influenced broader historical developments in public health, urban planning, and social mobility.