An article that turned an exoticizing anthropological lens on US citizens in 1956 began as an academic in-joke but turned into an indictment of the discipline.

If hunger is moral purity, self-care a purchasable commodity, and wellness a stand-in for thinness, what does health really mean?

Wellness is everywhere today: juice cleanses, Soulcycle classes, self-care. The roots of the trend can be found in nineteenth-century health-consciousness.