American nervousness, 1903

Alternate Titles

• 1903.

Description

Hysteria, insomnia, hypochondria, asthma, skin rashes, hay fever, premature baldness, inebriety, nervous exhaustion, brain collapse -- all were symptoms of neurasthenia, the bizarre psychophysiological illness that plagued America's intellectual and economic elite around the turn of the century. In this lively and compelling book, Tom Lutz explores the origins and impact of "American nervousness" on the lives and work of such diverse figures as Theodore Roosevelt, Henry and William James, Edith Wharton, W.E.B. DuBois, and Charolotte Perkins Gilman. He maintains that this disease, perceived as a sign of "extraordinary spirituality and sensitivity," helped the American upper class to come to terms with radical changes in social life: labor unrest, the beginnings of overseas empire, a massive influx of immigrants, the addition of growing numbers of married women to the workforce, and countless technological advances. - Back cover.

Description

"In 1903 an epidemic raged among American artists, writers, and intellectuals, and through the leisure class as well. Called "American nervousness" or "the blues," the psychological disorder diagnosed as neurasthenia loomed large in the lives and writings of such diverse figures as Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Dreiser, Edith Wharton, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Henry and William James, W.E.B. Du Bois, Edgar Saltus, Hamlin Garland, Frank Norris, William Dean Howells, and Mary Wilkins Freeman. In this fascinating account, Tom Lutz examines the complex role played by neurasthenia in a variety of works by both canonized authors and popular writers. His wide-ranging book illuminates a network of attitudes toward gender, class, and ethnicity at a time when social hierarchies were perceived as being in a state of crisis. He argues persuasively that whether perceived as an index of refinement, a disease of the shabby gentility, a fearful response to modernity, or a sign of old-fashioned values, neurasthenia was an illness that helped Americans to come to terms with the cultural and economic changes that radically altered social life between the Civil War and World War I. Written with verve and wit, American Nervousness, 1903, is a book that will appeal to anyone with an interest in American cultural and literary history.

Subjects

Other Editions

• American nervousness, 1903: an anecdotal historyCornell University Press1991-01-01
• American Nervousness, 1903PaperbackCornell University Press1993-02-01