Western Archives - Words To That Effect

Words To That Effect Live at Liberty Hall - tw

December 31, 2018December 31, 2018 Conor19th Century Literature, American Literature, History, Literature and Science, Medicine

Ep 24: Words To That Effect Live at Liberty Hall

Words To That Effect is back! Episode 24 is a recording of September’s live show for the Dublin Podcast Festival. This episode is a story about a long-forgotten nervous disease. But it’s also a story of science and culture, psychology and mental health, feminism and creativity, war and masculinity. It’s read more…

September 17, 2017January 4, 2018 Conor19th Century Literature, 20th Century Literature, American Literature, History

Owen Wister and the Fictional American West [Article]

Travelling Out West Episode 6 of Words To That Effect (listen here) looked at some of the influences of neurasthenia, a nervous ailment that was ultimately as cultural as it was medical. For men living in large Eastern U.S. cities, one of the frequently advised cures for neurasthenia was a read more…

September 4, 2017January 25, 2018 Conor19th Century Literature, 20th Century Literature, American Literature, Medicine, Supernatural

Episode 6: Neurasthenia, Cowboys, and Feminists

Neurasthenia: The “National Disease of America” In 1881 an American neurologist named George Miller Beard published a hugely influential book: American Nervousness. In it, he laid out the symptoms, cures, and implications of what he called “neurasthenia”, essentially what one might call nervous exhaustion. Beard didn’t coin the term but read more…