The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
Stephen Greenblatt
"The Swerve" refers to the Renaissance.
The book is essentially a biography of Poggio Bracciolini, who held the prestigious post of apostolic secretary to Baldassare Cossa, Pope John XXIII.
In 1415, Pope John XXIII was deposed and the name John XXIII stricken from the roster of popes. Poggio, unemployed, and hoping to cure rheumatism in his hands, traveled to the baths at Baden in Germany.
At the bathhouse in Baden, Poggio was amazed by what he saw:
Old women as well as younger ones, going naked into the water before the eyes of men and displaying their private parts and their buttocks to the onlookers.
...There are almost a thousand of them in the baths, many drinking heavily, and yet there is no quarreling, bickering, or cursing.