Age of Fitness (eBook)

Jürgen Martschukat is Professor of North American History at the University of Erfurt.

Table of contents:

Acknowledgements

Introduction: The Age of Fitness

1. "Fit or Fat"? Fitness in Recent History and the Present Day

2. Fitness. Trajectories of a Concept since the Eighteenth Century

3. Working

4. Having Sex

5. Fighting

6. Productive, Potent, and Ready to Fight?

Notes

Bibliography

Index

'fascinating'
The Guardian

'convincing'
New Statesman

"Jürgen Martschukat uncovers fitness as a regulating force deeply inscribed in liberal societies; it is a state of productivity, social responsibility, and self-worth for which individuals relentlessly strive. An absorbing account of 'proactive relationships' with our bodies, The Age of Fitness is also a benchmark history of biopolitics."
Douglas Booth, Thompson Rivers University

"This extremely clear and well-argued book is indispensable for those who wish to reflect upon the social and political conditions by which we have become concerned with our 'fitness' and the historical development of such an endeavor within a comparative North American and European context. Of particular note is the relation it establishes between the work we undertake on ourselves, our bodies, our vitality, and our potency, and the neoliberal models of society that emphasize individualized performance and competition."
Mitchell Dean, Copenhagen Business School

"Bodies, and ideas about bodies, have a powerful history. Martschukat's The Age of Fitness tracks the current preoccupation with 'being fit' across over 200 years and multiple sites within the West. Propelled to consume, yet also to maintain an ideally svelte frame, we are caught within a deeply ambivalent regime. Martschukat's lively discussion provides clarity and depth to this most vexing of contemporary conditions."
Charlotte Macdonald, Victoria University of Wellington

"In this meticulous analysis of contemporary society, Martschukat lays bare the cultural and historical roots of the modern fitness boom."
WOZ-Die Wochenzeitung

"This original and engaging book addresses some of the most pressing questions of our time: critical social history at its best."
SWR 2

"The Age of Fitness is an evocative and persuasive big picture explanation of fitness... it is a masterful piece of rich, detailed and nuanced contextualisation."
Sport, Education and Society

"The book provides an excellent framework for the fat studies researcher/activist to understand fitness as a means of creating self-regulated workers required in the neoliberal epoch and for reinforcing social class privilege."
Fat Studies