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PREFACE : THE PERSONAL AND THE PUBLIC IN THE AMERICAN HOME The bathroom sits at the intersection of personal behavior and public influ- ence in the American home. An intensely private space, the bathroom is where the user locks the door and performs personal functions alone. At the same time, the external influences on the function and appearance of the bathroom are numerous—technological change, public infrastructure, political intervention, fashion, consumerism, ideals of cleanliness, and so on. Paradoxically, the notion that the bathtub, sink, and toilet should be concentrated in one room was a result of late–19th-century beliefs about disease that had been discredited by the time bathrooms were becoming universal features of American houses. Yet the three-fixture bathroom persisted through the 20th century as a desirable aspect of genteel living, reflecting social status in its separation, size, and decoration. Privacy is a key theme that runs through this book. The functions per- formed in the bathroom—which reflect personally held, culturally influ- enced ideas about the body—are generally performed alone. Greater wealth and status permit homeowners to attain increased privacy from not having to share their bathrooms with as many people and from locat- ing bathrooms out of view of guests. Multiple bathrooms in a house and their location next to bedrooms, with a more public so-called powder room for guests, ensure this privacy. Privacy even appears in our euphemisms.