The body electric : how strange machines built the modern American /

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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 hea...

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Frontmatter --
Contents --
Acknowledgments --
Preface --
Introduction --
1. The Machine-Built Body --
2. Measuring Mechanical Strength --
3. Exploring Electric Limits --
4. Powering the Intimate Body --
5. “Radiomania” Limits the Energy Dream --
Conclusion --
Notes --
Bibliography --
Index --
About the Author
1. Verfasser:
Peña, Carolyn Thomas de la
Format:
Elektronisch E-Book
Sprache:
Englisch
Veröffentlicht:
New York, NY : New York University Press, 2003.
Zusammenfassung:
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.
Umfang:
1 online resource (348 pages)
Anmerkungen:
Description based upon print version of record.
Anmerkungen:
English
Bibliografie:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9780814719664
081471966X
9780814719831
081471983X
9780814785492
0814785492
Schlagworte:
History, 20th Century.
History, 19th Century.
Exercise Therapy > history.
Electric Stimulation Therapy > history.
Electrotherapeutics > United States > History > 20th century.
Electrotherapeutics > United States > History > 19th century.
Medical instruments and apparatus > United States > History > 20th century.
Medical instruments and apparatus > United States > History > 19th century.
Quacks and quackery > United States > History > 20th century.
Quacks and quackery > United States > History > 19th century.
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