The body electric
Subtitle: how strange machines built the modern American
By: Carolyn Thomas de la Peña
Series: American history and culture; American history and culture (New York University Press)
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 329
Subjects: Quacks and quackery -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Quacks and quackery -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Medical instruments and apparatus -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Medical instruments and apparatus -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Electrotherapeutics -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Electrotherapeutics -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Description: "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 Pena argues, can we fully understand our culture's twentieth-century energy enthusiasm."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-319) and index
Table of contents: title: The machine-built body; title: Measuring mechanical strength; title: Exploring electric limits; title: Powering the intimate body; title: "Radiomania" limits the energy dream; title: Conclusion: the end of an era?