America is becoming more like Europe
According to the neurologists who first recognised the condition, “Americanitis” described a fraying of the nerves caused by the relentless speeding-up of modern life. Time and distance-shrinking inventions, such as the telegraph and the steam train, put a go-getting nation under psychological strain that its nervous systems had not evolved to handle. Silas Weir Mitchell, a Philadelphia doctor, reckoned that two categories of American were at high risk from the condition: competitive businessmen and social-climbing women. The only cure was rest, plus a diet that included four pints of milk a day.
America has always been synonymous with restlessness. Most of the tribes that inhabited north America before 1492 were semi-nomadic hunters, moving around with the seasons.… Seguir leyendo »