"Life Embodied examines a variety of texts – philosophical and medical treatises, poems, novels – in great detail and navigates between discussions of Hippocratism, Cartesianism, Montpellier vitalism, Romanticism, and Avant-gardism ... Life Embodied represents a major contribution to scholarship on Spanish modernity ... It is an excellent piece of scholarship." Dale Joseph Pratt, Brigham Young University "Nicolás Fernández-Medina tackles the subject [of modernity and vital force] with exemplary rigor and dexterity, offering a comprehensive and kaleidoscopic view. His familiarity with first-tier authors is matched here with an impressive knowledge of numer "Fernández-Medina consulted an impressive number of multidisciplinary sources in tracing the concept of vital force - the immanent energy that promotes the processes of life in the body and in nature - in Spain between the 17th and the late-19th centuries "In his fascinating diachronic interdisciplinary study of the theories of vital force in Spanish modernity, Nicolás Fernández-Medina revisits forgotten texts on vital force--"the immanent energy that promotes the processes of life and growth in the body a "Life Embodied: The Promise of Vital Force in Spanish Modernity es una obra sumamente recomendable para todos aquellos interesados en la historia de la ciencia, la historia de la literatura, las relaciones entre filosofía, ciencia y poder, y el desarrollo "Nicolás Fernández-Medina's ambitious tome breaks new ground as the first monograph to examine the history of vital force in Spain. It successfully demonstrates that theories of vital force – broadly defined as 'the immanent energy that promotes the proce