Book review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Book review - Essay Example The author’s usage of the word dirt as an allegory is the main construct of the entire book. The book is a distinctive exploration of culture in the early nineteenth century when the colonial settlement took place in New Zealand. It also presents a well-drawn picture of scholarly and enlightening history of sanitation and public health awareness in the early Dunedin, New Zealand. The way the book is written and constructed, it pulls the threads of the discourse analysis, cultural theory, as well as anthropology. The author uses a research methodology that answers certain questions like what does dirt symbolizes or points to, in what ways the colonial settlers parleyed their negative impact, and how did the dirt positively contributed to the city’s development. Moreover, the author highlights the cultural eventuality of dirt that inspired its changeability in the colonial settlements. She provides a narrative on the regulatory practices that added to the dirt and describ es the incidences by using a metonym for the polluted city. Wood’s coherently expresses the implications of her knowledge of history and its snowball effect on the current thinking of town planning. She quite impressively draws a collection of primary sources that without doubt produce a substantial addition to the literature of history of Dunedin. Undeniably, the book is a historical record of a relationship of dirt and the city. Nevertheless, Dirt clearly qualifies for the work of cultural studies and the historical work presented in the book is only to support the theoretical framework of the book (Woods, 2005). Moreover, the book sheds light upon the subject in nine chapters that are built upon splendidly captioned modern photographs, drawings, and cartoons. Wood’s weaves the history of colonial settlers and the impact they had on the Dunedin, New Zealand’s largest city. She has discussed that the issues in the times of colonial setters in the city of New Ze aland were more than the limitation of public health, prowling perils of immorality and town planning. Furthermore, she explores the vital role played by the hospitals and doctors alike, along with authorities who joined in the cause to protect the public from disease and decay. Thus, in order to do so she skims through topics like mud and swamps, toilets, sewerages, abattoirs and cemeteries with emphasis upon pollution and decomposed1. Wood’s, with awareness has put her case study in a wider context, by making comparisons with other cities of New Zealand and Australia. Moreover, she has managed to evaluate the impact the British has left upon the cities thinking that they have brought a positive change with the aid of colonizing the cities. Therefore, the book covers all the points in order to justify the topic the writer has used a multi pronged approach and has showed the intricate linkage between the colonial concept and the dirt, filth and disease it brought with itself2 . Dunedin’s dream withered in to poor planning, unhygienic sanitation, formless roads and the piled up waste, the crux of the statement is that the impact of importation of cultural practices soon discoloured the dream of modernity of early New Zealanders. The surfacing of the city brought with it correlations between human and dirt, matter and culture. Dirt was an unalterable part of the new community, which formed and grew in the presence of disease, decay, and pollution. From the 1790 onwards, the European settlement was intermittent