The Body Electric
How Strange Machines Built the Modern American
Seiten
2003
New York University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8147-1953-4 (ISBN)
New York University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8147-1953-4 (ISBN)
Between the years 1850 and 1950, Americans became the leading energy consumers on the planet, expending tremendous physical resources on energy exploration, mental resources on energy exploitation, and monetary resources on energy acquisition. This book includes changing ideas about fitness and gender in dialogue with the culture of technology.
Between the years 1850 and 1950, Americans became the leading energy consumers on the planet, expending tremendous physical resources on energy exploration, mental resources on energy exploitation, and monetary resources on energy acquisition. A unique combination of pseudoscientific theories of health and the public's rudimentary understanding of energy created an age in which sources of industrial power seemed capable of curing the physical limitations and ill health that plagued Victorian bodies. Licensed and "quack" physicians alike promoted machines, electricity, and radium as invigorating cures, veritable "fountains of youth" that would infuse the body with energy and push out disease and death.
The Body Electric is the first book to place changing ideas about fitness and gender in dialogue with the popular culture of technology. Whether through wearing electric belts, drinking radium water, or lifting mechanized weights, many Americans came to believe that by embracing the nation's rapid march to industrialization, electrification, and "radiomania," their bodies would emerge fully powered. Only by uncovering this belief's passions and products, Thomas de la Peña argues, can we fully understand our culture's twentieth-century energy enthusiasm.
Between the years 1850 and 1950, Americans became the leading energy consumers on the planet, expending tremendous physical resources on energy exploration, mental resources on energy exploitation, and monetary resources on energy acquisition. A unique combination of pseudoscientific theories of health and the public's rudimentary understanding of energy created an age in which sources of industrial power seemed capable of curing the physical limitations and ill health that plagued Victorian bodies. Licensed and "quack" physicians alike promoted machines, electricity, and radium as invigorating cures, veritable "fountains of youth" that would infuse the body with energy and push out disease and death.
The Body Electric is the first book to place changing ideas about fitness and gender in dialogue with the popular culture of technology. Whether through wearing electric belts, drinking radium water, or lifting mechanized weights, many Americans came to believe that by embracing the nation's rapid march to industrialization, electrification, and "radiomania," their bodies would emerge fully powered. Only by uncovering this belief's passions and products, Thomas de la Peña argues, can we fully understand our culture's twentieth-century energy enthusiasm.
Carolyn Thomas de la Peña is Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of California at Davis.
Acknowledgments Preface Introduction1 The Machine-Built Body2 Measuring Mechanical Strength 3 Exploring Electric Limits 4 Powering the Intimate Body 5 "Radiomania" Limits the Energy Dream Conclusion: The End of an Era? NotesBibliographyIndex About the Author
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 1.5.2003 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | American History and Culture |
| Verlagsort | New York |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 153 x 229 mm |
| Themenwelt | Medizin / Pharmazie |
| Naturwissenschaften | |
| Sozialwissenschaften | |
| Technik ► Medizintechnik | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-8147-1953-8 / 0814719538 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-8147-1953-4 / 9780814719534 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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