1910: The year the modern world lost its mind
“Automobilism is an illness, a mental illness. This illness has a pretty name: speed... [Man] can no longer stand still, he shivers, his nerves tense like springs, impatient to get going once he has arrived somewhere because it is not somewhere else, somewhere else, always somewhere else.” - Octave Mirbeau, French novelist, 1910 About today’s piece: When we hear about technological change and social crisis in the 21st century, it is easy to imagine that we are living through a special period of