Making the American Body: The Remarkable Saga of the Men and Women Whose Feats, Feuds, and Passions Shaped Fitness History - Hardcover

Black, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803243707 ISBN 13: 9780803243705

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2013

Synopsis

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.

 

About this title

About the Author

Jonathan Black is a veteran of magazine editing, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Inc., Forbes, GQ, and the American Spectator. He is the author of Yes, You Can! Behind the Hype and Hustle of the Motivation Biz and has taught at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

 

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803243707
• ISBN 13: 9780803243705
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264