*"[A] superb and necessary book. This provocative assessment from a lifetime of scholarship might help us to place ourselves, not just territorially, but in that other precious element of history: time. " The Guardian *"A book that never fails to be informative, readable and provocative. Le Goff.

"Stress," "burn out," "mental overload": the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have witnessed an unrelenting expansion of the meaning of fatigue. The tentacles of exhaustion insinuated themselves into every aspect of our lives, from the workplace to the home, from our relationships with friends and family to the most intimate aspects of our lives. All around us are the signs of a "burn-out society," a society in which fatigue has become the norm. How did this happen?

This pioneering book e...