How Underwear Got Under There: A Brief History (review)

Kids who have just passed the stage of irrepressible giggles but haven't lost sight of underwear's inherently amusing properties will snap up this lighthearted but thoughtful discourse on dainties. Eschewing the standard chronological treatment of fashion trends, Shaskan devotes the bulk of her text to nine practical uses for undergarments: protection (from offenses such as scratchy flora and hurtling baseballs), warmth (perforated buckskin longjohns), modesty ("lead-lined underwear, impenetrable to x-rays"), cleanliness (saves on laundry), support (from bras to sock garters), shaping (corsets for women and men), exaggeration (codpieces and inflatable bras), status (hoops, crins, and panniers), and statement-making (from bra-burning to political put-downs). Although title and contents pages are tricked out in lingerie pastels and girly script font, text provides both genders with adequate coverage ,and Dunnick's watercolor cartoons (and a few period photos and advertisements) catch just about everybody in a moment of deshabille. Shaskan won't allow even a peek at her sources, so kids will have to take her word for everything (are the Russians really developing underwear-eating bacteria to solve astronauts' laundry problems?) or launch an undercover investigation of their own.