Fat : a cultural history of obesity / Sander L. Gilman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gilman, Sander L.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Obesity--ethnology.

Obesity--history.

Cross-Cultural Comparison.

History, 20th Century.

Human Body.

Social Perception.

Obesity--Social aspects--History.

Obesity.

Obesity--Social aspects.

History.

Medical Subjects:

Obesity--ethnology.

Obesity--history.

Cross-Cultural Comparison.

History, 20th Century.

Human Body.

Social Perception.

Physical Description:

237 pages

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA, USA : Polity, 2008.

Summary:

The modern world is faced with a terrifying new 'disease', that of 'obesity'. As people get fatter, we have come to see excess weight as unhealthy, morally repugnant and socially damaging. Fat has long been a national problem and each age, culture, and tradition has defined a point beyond which excess weight is unacceptable, ugly, or corrupting.

This fascinating new book by Sander Gilman looks at the interweaving of fact and fiction relating to obesity, tracing public concern from the mid-nineteenth century to the modern day. It looks critically at the source of our anxieties, covering issues such as childhood obesity, the production of food, media coverage of the subject, and the emergence of obesity in modern China. Written as a cultural history, the book is particularly concerned with the cultural meanings that have been attached to obesity over time and explores the implications of these meanings for wider society. The history of these debates is the history of fat in culture, from nineteenth-century opera to our global dieting obsession. Fat: A Cultural History of Obesity is a vivid and absorbing cultural guide to one of the most important topics in modern society.

Contents:

Introduction : some weighty thoughts on dieting and epidemics

Epidemic obesity

Childhood obesity

The stigma of obesity

Obesity as an ethnic problem

Regions of fat

Chinese obesity.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [175]-223) and index.

ISBN:

9780745644400

0745644406

9780745644417

0745644414

OCLC:

258104034