Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm sure this was very popular and shocking in its day, but this 19th-century investigative journalism, undercover-style, is written to shock and amaze.

Of course, knowing what I know of that history, and how bad it got back then, it is kinda shocking to compare that situation with what we have now.

Some things have gotten better, of course. There is a bit more accountability where there are actual institutions available for mental health, but the reality is worse. There aren't facilities in America. It has all become runoff toward the prison system. And let's face it, prisons aren't much better than 19th-century madhouses.

Situations change, of course, and since there is no real help for the mentally ill, they generally die by suicide by cop or drug use. Is this a more desirable situation? Where is the investigative journalism to horrify modern people, now?

It's funny how no matter how things change, it all remains the same.


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