Nostalgia was a fatal condition among forcibly conscripted Egyptian peasants

Evidence

Faced with a near epidemic outbreak of “home-sickness” Clot Bey, the Chief Physician of the army, felt it necessary to refer to it in a booklet that he wrote for young army doctors “so that they can consult it at ease without having to refer to other larger tomes.” … Home-sickness [al-ishtiyāq ila al-waṭan] is a disease that often afflicts the new soldiers after leaving their homes, families and things familiar to them. This leads them to depression, melancholy, soreness, tiredness and sometimes to death. Therefore, they have to be kept occupied as much as possible and to be promised their imminent return home … As much as possible soldiers have to be kept in a happy, content state and their officers have to be ordered to be gentle with them … and to make them believe that the dangers they are about to encounter are not grave. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1101 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

It must have been tempting in 1890 to say, “Life was much nicer back in the village. Everybody back to the farm.” They resisted that temptation to reverse the tide, choosing instead the harder but surer path of social innovation. Similarly, among those concerned about the social-capital deficit today, it would be tempting to say, “Life was much nicer back in the fifties. Would all women please report to the kitchen, and turn off the TV on the way?” Social dislocation can easily breed a reactionary form of nostalgia. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1445 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Nostalgia is an adjustment mechanism during crises — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 540; Settled labor’s repression makes nostalgia for nomadic happiness unbearable and punishable — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 299; Egyptian army doctors classified homesickness as a fatal clinical disease — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1101 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Egyptian army doctors classified homesickness as a fatal clinical disease #corroborates (0.95) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1101
• Old moral panics about community loss breed reactionary nostalgia rather than constructive reform #complicates (0.70) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1445