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American breakdown : our ailing nation, my body's revolt, and the nineteenth-century woman who brought me back to life / Jennifer Lunden.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : Harper Wave, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2023]Edition: First editionDescription: viii, 456 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780062941374
  • 0062941372
Other title:
  • Our ailing nation, my body's revolt, and the 19th-century woman who brought me back to life
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Bankruptcy -- Still waters -- Elephant -- Territories -- Minefield -- Our domestic poisons -- Our domestic poisons, redux -- Spin -- Clockwork -- Load -- Gilt -- Asylum -- Bedlam -- Pulse -- Treasure house -- Rewiring -- Web.
Summary: "A literary, historical exploration about the way in which our industrialized lives have made us sick--from diarist Alice James and the 19th century neuraesthenics to current day chronic and stress-related illnesses--that seeks to answer the question who gets sick, and why?"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Shelving location Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction New 616.0478 L962 Available 33111011211584
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A Silent Spring for the human body, this wide-ranging, genre-crossing literary mystery interweaves the author's quest to understand the source of her own condition with her telling of the story of the chronically ill 19th-century diarist Alice James--ultimately uncovering the many hidden health hazards of life in America.

When Jennifer Lunden became chronically ill after moving from Canada to Maine, her case was a medical mystery. Just 21, unable to hold a book or stand for a shower, she lost her job and consigned herself to her bed. The doctor she went to for help told her she was "just depressed."

After suffering from this enigmatic illness for five years, she discovered an unlikely source of hope and healing: a biography of Alice James, the bright, witty, and often bedridden sibling of brothers Henry James, the novelist, and William James, the father of psychology. Alice suffered from a life-shattering illness known as neurasthenia, now often dismissed as a "fashionable illness."

In this meticulously researched and illuminating debut, Lunden interweaves her own experience with Alice's, exploring the history of medicine and the effects of the industrial revolution and late-stage capitalism to tell a riveting story of how we are a nation struggling--and failing--to be healthy.

Although science--and the politics behind its funding--has in many ways let Lunden and millions like her down, in the end science offers a revelation that will change how readers think about the ecosystems of their bodies, their communities, the country, and the planet.

"A literary, historical exploration about the way in which our industrialized lives have made us sick--from diarist Alice James and the 19th century neuraesthenics to current day chronic and stress-related illnesses--that seeks to answer the question who gets sick, and why?"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 375-446) and index.

Bankruptcy -- Still waters -- Elephant -- Territories -- Minefield -- Our domestic poisons -- Our domestic poisons, redux -- Spin -- Clockwork -- Load -- Gilt -- Asylum -- Bedlam -- Pulse -- Treasure house -- Rewiring -- Web.

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