This book reveals how, when, where, and why vitalism and its relationship to new scientific theories, philosophies and concepts of energy became seminal from th

From quantum physics and genetics to psychology and the social sciences, from the development of atomic weapons to the growing mass media of film and radio, the

Lofthouse (fellow, modern history, Oxford U.) sketches an overview of "the vitalist moment" of the early 20th century--"a moment which re-enchanted life in the

Surveying the full breadth of J. M. Coetzee's career as both academic and novelist, this book argues for the necessity of rethinking his profound indebtedness t