Schuster, David G. (Author)
University of California, Santa Barbara
Furner, Mary O.
Edition Details: Advisor: Furner, Mary O.
Physical Details: 337 pp.
Language: English
This dissertation proposes a metaphor for the years 1869 to 1930 drawn from medicine and unique to the period itself. This metaphor is the disease neurasthenia, a nervous condition affecting the mind and body that was thought to be unique to modern societies. Whereas past studies of neurasthenia have typically relied upon medical articles or literary accounts to understand the disease, this dissertation adds to the analysis patent medicine advertisements, newspapers stories, archived correspondence between physicians and patients, the work of progressive reformers, and archived clinical patient records. By situating neurasthenia at the intersection of private and public life in American society, this dissertation seeks to show how neurasthenia went from being a medical condition defined and diagnosed by professional physicians to being a popularized condition defined and diagnosed by advertisers, journalists, teachers, faith healers, managers, and, importantly, patients themselves. Once popularized, neurasthenia helped create conversations, both public and private, that went beyond narrowly defined medical issues to help people negotiate changes commonly associated with "modernity," including urbanization, the growth of white-collar jobs, professionalization, the rise of the leisure industry, therapeutic religious movements, the commercialization of popular culture, the reevaluation of gender roles, and mass public education. Ultimately, this dissertation seeks to define the United States, as it emerged from the nineteenth century, as a "Neurasthenic Nation," a place where people saw their personal health inextricably linked to the pitfalls and possibilities of the changing world around them.
...MoreDescription Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 67/10 (2007). Pub. no. AAT 3238802.
Similar Citations
Book
Bay, Alexander R.;
(2012)
Beriberi in Modern Japan: The Making of a National Disease
(/isis/citation/CBB001213525/)
Article
Arnold, David J.;
(2012)
The Medicalization of Poverty in Colonial India
(/isis/citation/CBB001213112/)
Thesis
Stern, Alexandra Minna;
(1999)
Eugenics beyond borders: Science and medicalization in Mexico and the United States West, 1900-1950. (California, Texas)
(/isis/citation/CBB001562665/)
Book
Edwige Comoy Fusaro;
(2007)
La nevrosi tra medicina e letteratura
(/isis/citation/CBB385434953/)
Chapter
Kim E. Nielsen;
(2014)
Property, Disability, and the Making of the Incompetent Citizen in the United States, 1860s-1940s
(/isis/citation/CBB093838027/)
Book
Wray, Matt;
(2006)
Not Quite White: White Trash and the Boundaries of Whiteness
(/isis/citation/CBB001021028/)
Article
Washington, Garrett L.;
(2013)
St. Luke's Hospital and the Modernisation of Japan, 1874--1928
(/isis/citation/CBB001421856/)
Book
McCrea, Heather L.;
(2010)
Diseased Relations: Epidemics, Public Health, and State-Building in Yucatán, Mexico, 1847--1924
(/isis/citation/CBB001200622/)
Book
Constantin Bărbulescu;
(2019)
Physicians, Peasants, and Modern Medicine: Imagining Rurality in Romania, 1860-1910
(/isis/citation/CBB503754124/)
Book
Moulin, Anne Marie;
Ulman, Yesim Isil;
(2010)
Perilous Modernity: History of Medicine in the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East from the 19th Century Onwards
(/isis/citation/CBB001200966/)
Book
Weindling, Paul;
(2015)
Healthcare in private and public from the early modern period to 2000
(/isis/citation/CBB001510007/)
Article
Beemer, Jeffrey K.;
(2009)
Diagnostic Prescriptions: Shifting Boundaries in Nineteenth-Century Disease and Cause-of-Death Classification
(/isis/citation/CBB001231860/)
Thesis
Koslow, Jennifer Lisa;
(2001)
Eden's underbelly: Female reformers and public health in Los Angeles, 1889--1932 (California)
(/isis/citation/CBB001562575/)
Book
Schuster, David G.;
(2011)
Neurasthenic Nation America's Search for Health, Happiness, and Comfort, 1869--1920
(/isis/citation/CBB001212361/)
Article
Liu, Shiyung;
(2008)
The Ripples of Rivalry: The Spread of Modern Medicine from Japan to Its Colonies
(/isis/citation/CBB000930695/)
Book
Ebrahimnejad, Hormoz;
(2014)
Medicine in Iran: Profession, Practice, and Politics, 1800--1925
(/isis/citation/CBB001552180/)
Thesis
Carroll, Katherine L.;
(2012)
Modernizing the American Medical School, 1893--1940: Architecture, Pedagogy, Professionalization, and Philanthropy
(/isis/citation/CBB001561034/)
Book
McCrossen, Alexis;
(2013)
Marking Modern Times: A History of Clocks, Watches, and Other Timekeepers in American Life
(/isis/citation/CBB001451962/)
Thesis
Gangloff, Amy Beth;
(2006)
Medicalizing the Automobile: Public Health, Safety, and American Culture,1920--1967
(/isis/citation/CBB001560643/)
Article
Nye, Robert A.;
(2003)
The Evolution of the Concept of Medicalization in the Late Twentieth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB000300897/)
Be the first to comment!