Showing results for "Mad World" in United States

The first full-length biography of the Nobel laureate to appear in a quarter century, Mad at the World illuminates what has made the work of John Steinbeck an enduring part of the literary canon: his capacity for empathy. Angered by the plight of the Dust Bowl migrants who were starving even as they toiled to harvest California's limitless bounty and appalled by the country's refusal to recognize the humanity common to all of its citizens, Steinbeck took a stand against social injustice - paradoxically given his inherent misanthropy.

Journalist Nellie Bly went undercover in 1887 to investigate an insane asylum on an assignment for New York World. After getting herself committed by acting deranged, Bly uncovered the dark truth about the asylum. Patients were fed rotten food, subject to filthy living conditions, and abused by staff. Not only was this no place for the mentally ill to find treatment, Bly discovered it was the kind of place that could drive even a perfectly sane woman off the edge.