Making the American body : the remarkable saga of the men and women whose feats, feuds, and passions shaped fitness history / Jonathan Black.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Black, Jonathan, 1943-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Physical fitness--United States--History.

Physical fitness.

Health attitudes--United States--History.

Health attitudes.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (260 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

If you thought the fitness craze was about being healthy, think again. Although Charles Atlas, Jack LaLanne, Jim Fixx, Jane Fonda, Richard Simmons, and Jillian Michaels might well point the way to a better body, they have done so only if their brands brought in profits. In the first book to tell the full story of the American obsession with fitness and how we got to where we are today, Jonathan Black gives us a backstage look at an industry and the people that have left an indelible mark on the American body and the consciousness it houses. Spanning the nation's fitness obsession from Atlas to Arnold, from Spinning to Zumba, and featuring an outrageous cast of characters bent on whipping us into shape while simultaneously shaping the way we view our bodies, Black tells the story of an outsized but little-examined aspect of our culture. With insights drawn from more than fifty interviews and attention to key developments in bodybuilding, aerobics, equipment, health clubs, running, sports medicine, group exercise, Pilates, and yoga, Making the American Body reveals how a focus on fitness has shaped not only our physiques but also, and more profoundly, American ideas of what "fitness" is.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Preface

Introduction: A Night to Remember

1. The Shape of History

2. Selling the Body Beautiful, 1900-1930s

3. America Shapes Up, 1930s-1950s

4. The Machine Age, 1960s-1970s

5. Gotta Move, 1960s-1980s

6. The Buff Culture, 1970s-1990s

7. Pumping Up Business, 1980s-1990s

8. Fitness Today

9. Why Exercise?

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781496209504

1496209508

9780803248922

080324892X