Much more could be written about it, and it would be nice to have a great comprehensive FAQ article. Pending that:

There was an AskHistorians podcast episode, and deodorant (and preusmably odors in general) were touched on. The discussion post and pointer are at "AskHistorians Podcast 062 - Cleanliness and Hygiene in the Early United States" - /u/colevintage was the guest and answered a question in the discussion about early deodorants. Unfortunately, colevintage doesn't seem to have an AskHistorians flaired-user profile page.

I haven't found an overall answer, just answers pertaining to some cultures and times, or to one aspect. So, to gather the pieces, I have a lot of links, more than are ideal for a FAQ Finder posting, though at least most are short. I list them in what I think is in order of decreasing usefulness. If someone has a suggestion of a better thing to do, even removing some or all, please let me know.

'Did everybody "smell bad" in the in the medieval period?' : /u/Vox_Scholasticus , /u/GustavGustavson , and lots of different people commenting on dental hygiene, all for medieval Europe.

'Benjamin Franklin said, "Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation." Can someone give me more perspective of his standards?' : colevintage on the influence of clean clothing.

"Were people really that nasty during during the 1600-1700's?" : yet more from colevintage on Renaissance Europe and later.

"Is it safe to say that every single great person in history prior to, say, 1930, would, to our noses, smell just horrible?" : just for KerasTasi's brief comment on 20th C Britain, and for atmdk7 on Romans.

"What was hygene really like in Europe between, say, the End of the Roman Empire in 500 A.D and 1850 A.D? Most interested in 1000 A.D and 1600 A.D" : MrAquarius on Charlemagne; DouglasHufferton on the medieval period; shlin28 on Romans, Byzantines, and Arabs; thbb on a historian's book.

"In your field of study, what were the bathing practices of the middle class/common people? Also, how did they deal with the smell of body odor?" : vonadler on Swedish history, Golden-Calf on Pennsylvania Dutch.

Of course, this is not to discourage further discussion, quite the contrary. The rules say that asking questions that have been asked before is permitted .