The human motor : energy, fatigue, and the origins of modernity

Science once had an unshakable faith in its ability to bring the forces of nature—even human nature—under control. In this wide-ranging book Anson Rabinbach examines how developments in physics, biology, medicine, psychology, politics, and art employed the metaphor of the working body as a human motor. From nineteenth-century theories of thermodynamics and political economy to the twentieth-century ideals of Taylorism and Fordism, Rabinbach demonstrates how the utopian obsession with energy and fatigue shaped social thought across the ideological spectrum. From Idleness To Fatigue -- Transcendental Materialism: The Primacy Of Arbeitskraft -- The Political Economy Of Labor Power -- Time And Motion: Etienne-jules Marey And The Mechanics Of The Body -- The Laws Of The Human Motor -- Mental Fatigue, Neurasthenia, And Civilization -- The European Science Of Work -- The Science Of Work And The Social Question -- The Americanization Of Labor Power And The Great War 1913-1919 -- The Science Of Work Between The Wars -- Conclusion: The End Of The Work-centered Society? Anson Rabinbach. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 301-383) And Index.