Governing Bodies: American Politics and the Shaping of the Modern Physique by Ra

Description: Governing Bodies by Rachel Louise Moran Weaving together histories of the body, public policy, and social welfare, Rachel Louise Moran analyzes a series of discrete episodes over the course of the twentieth century to chronicle the federal governments efforts to shape the physique of its citizenry. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Americans are generally apprehensive about what they perceive as big government-especially when it comes to measures that target their bodies. Soda taxes, trans fat bans, and calorie counts on menus have all proven deeply controversial. Such interventions, Rachel Louise Moran argues, are merely the latest in a long, albeit often quiet, history of policy motivated by economic, military, and familial concerns. In Governing Bodies, Moran traces the tension between the intimate terrain of the individual citizens body and the public ways in which the federal government has sought to shape the American physique over the course of the twentieth century.Distinguishing her subject from more explicit and aggressive government intrusion into the areas of sexuality and reproduction, Moran offers the concept of the "advisory state"-the use of government research, publicity, and advocacy aimed at achieving citizen support and voluntary participation to realize social goals. Instituted through outside agencies and glossy pamphlets as well as legislation, the advisory state is government out of sight yet intimately present in the lives of citizens. The activities of such groups as the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Childrens Bureau, the Presidents Council on Physical Fitness, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) implement federal body projects in subtle ways that serve to mask governmental interference in personal decisions about diet and exercise. From advice-giving to height-weight standards to mandatory nutrition education, these tactics not only empower and conceal the advisory state but also maintain the illusion of public and private boundaries, even as they become blurred in practice.Weaving together histories of the body, public policy, and social welfare, Moran analyzes a series of discrete episodes to chronicle the federal governments efforts to shape the physique of its citizenry. Governing Bodies sheds light on our present anxieties over the proper boundaries of state power. Author Biography Rachel Louise Moran teaches history at the University of North Texas. Table of Contents Introduction. Weight of the NationChapter 1. The Advisory State World War I Made: Scientific Nutrition and Scientific MotheringChapter 2. Boys into Men: Depression-Era Physique in the Civilian Conservation CorpsChapter 3. Men into Soldiers: World War II and the Conscripted BodyChapter 4. Selling Postwar Fitness: Advertising, Education, and the Presidents CouncilChapter 5. Wasted Bodies: Emaciation and the War on PovertyChapter 6. Poor Choices: Weight, Welfare, and WIC in the 1970sConclusion. Governing American BodiesNotesIndexAcknowledgments Review "Moran not only makes a critical and creative contribution to her field; she also illustrates the great potential of the historical monograph. Both capacious and incisive, Moran has dug deep and wide in the archives to document her overarching claim that most government projects designed to shape American bodies were part of . . . the advisory state...Given how much Moran has accomplished, scholars are now well equipped to delve even further into the complex and profoundly important role of the advisory state." * American Historical Review *"Morans work is important reading for scholars of the subtle American state. Within a field that has grown increasingly attentive to the workings of the state despite its efforts to conceal its tracks, Morans attention to the importance of gender in facilitating the invisibility of the states activities is particularly compelling. Gender, along with race and class, provides similar explanatory power in showing, however, that for many Americans the states efforts to shape the body were experienced coercively. Morans work offers the important reminder that the distinction between the states nature as advisory or coercive is one that is often experienced along axes of difference and power." * Western Historical Quarterly *"Governing Bodies is an important and valuable addition to the landscape of histories about fitness and the body. Morans work is a valuable examination of why the federal government cares about weight and muscles and the mechanisms through which it regulates them and it is essential reading for the field." * Journal of Social History *"Deeply researched and engagingly written, Governing Bodies offers a nuanced and provocative account of the role of the U.S. government in managing the physical fitness of its citizens. Rachel Louise Moran provides a new perspective on American political history and state development." * Marisa Chappell, Oregon State University *"Governing Bodies offers an authoritative and compelling account of the century-long effort to ensure that Americas citizenry was physically fit. Tracing the story from the evolution of the calorimeter to warnings that Americans were a Nation of Weaklings during the Cold War to WIC in the 1970s, Moran pays careful attention to the intersection of state, society, and political culture that framed this set of public policies. For much of the twentieth century, Americans were enticed, rather than coerced, into shaping up." * Brian Balogh, University of Virginia * Promotional Weaving together histories of the body, public policy, and social welfare, Rachel Louise Moran analyzes a series of discrete episodes over the course of the twentieth century to chronicle the federal governments efforts to shape the physique of its citizenry. Long Description Americans are generally apprehensive about what they perceive as big government--especially when it comes to measures that target their bodies. Soda taxes, trans fat bans, and calorie counts on menus have all proven deeply controversial. Such interventions, Rachel Louise Moran argues, are merely the latest in a long, albeit often quiet, history of policy motivated by economic, military, and familial concerns. In Governing Bodies , Moran traces the tension between the intimate terrain of the individual citizens body and the public ways in which the federal government has sought to shape the American physique over the course of the twentieth century. Distinguishing her subject from more explicit and aggressive government intrusion into the areas of sexuality and reproduction, Moran offers the concept of the "advisory state"--the use of government research, publicity, and advocacy aimed at achieving citizen support and voluntary participation to realize social goals. Instituted through outside agencies and glossy pamphlets as well as legislation, the advisory state is government out of sight yet intimately present in the lives of citizens. The activities of such groups as the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Childrens Bureau, the Presidents Council on Physical Fitness, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) implement federal body projects in subtle ways that serve to mask governmental interference in personal decisions about diet and exercise. From advice-giving to height-weight standards to mandatory nutrition education, these tactics not only empower and conceal the advisory state but also maintain the illusion of public and private boundaries, even as they become blurred in practice. Weaving together histories of the body, public policy, and social welfare, Moran analyzes a series of discrete episodes to chronicle the federal governments efforts to shape the physique of its citizenry. Governing Bodies sheds light on our present anxieties over the proper boundaries of state power. Review Quote " Governing Bodies offers an authoritative and compelling account of the century-long effort to ensure that Americas citizenry was physically fit. Tracing the story from the evolution of the calorimeter to warnings that Americans were a Nation of Weaklings during the Cold War to WIC in the 1970s, Moran pays careful attention to the intersection of state, society, and political culture that framed this set of public policies. For much of the twentieth century, Americans were enticed, rather than coerced, into shaping up."--Brian Balogh, University of Virginia Promotional "Headline" Weaving together histories of the body, public policy, and social welfare, Rachel Louise Moran analyzes a series of discrete episodes over the course of the twentieth century to chronicle the federal governments efforts to shape the physique of its citizenry. Excerpt from Book Introduction Weight of the Nation In 2010 First Lady Michelle Obama announced a national weight loss and fitness initiative called "Lets Move." The public health project encouraged increased nutrition education and labeling as well as changes to school lunches. It emphasized cooperation between schools, corporations, celebrities, and government. Almost immediately, the initiative came under sharp criticism. Fox News correspondent Sean Hannity said the program was "taking the nanny state to a new level." "Michelle Obama," he explained, "is suggesting what you should feed your children." On another television show that night, outspoken conservative Glenn Beck also sounded off on the initiative. Sure, it seemed like it was just a suggestion now, but Beck insisted such a plan would eventually become coercive. When people continued to make bad choices despite federal suggestions, he reasoned, "now you have to start thinking about punishments. Maybe a fine, maybe even jail." The road to the french fry police, he explained, "always starts with a nudge." Glenn Becks concern about so-called government nudges was pointed. At the time, Cass Sunstein, President Barack Obamas regulatory czar, was working to make nudging central to administration policy. In 2008 Sunstein had coauthored a book, Nudge , in which he argued that most people do a poor job of making their own decisions on everything from health to finances to the environment. Sunstein advocated managing citizens choices through what he called "libertarian paternalism." This meant nudging people, or changing the way different choices were presented in ways that would encourage citizens to make more desirable choices while still letting them believe they were choosing freely. President Obama appointed Sunstein to head the White Houses Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs; Glenn Beck labeled him "the most dangerous man in America." At the heart of the controversy over "Lets Move" and government nudging was a larger debate about the proper boundaries of state power. The body is often imagined as too intimate or too private a matter for regulation. Indeed, such body projects involving the government are often hotly contested, whether they concern abortion, maternity care, smoking, or disability. American physique and related matters like diet and physical activity fall into this category. Over the course of the twentieth century, policy questions ranging from physical standards to nutrition guidelines have helped make the shape, size, and development of a persons body an object of government regulation. These body projects belie the idea of any clear boundary between the public and private or the personal and political. This book centers on the physical bodies of citizens and the government efforts meant to reshape those bodies. From federal research on working-class dietary needs to programs for measuring and weighing children in the 1920s, and from physical standards for soldiers during World War II to Cold War school fitness programs, there is a rich history of the political uses of physique. I place cases of government intervention into bodies into a century-long narrative. This is a history of federal governance that infuses political history with cultural and social history, gender and sexuality, and the body itself. In the process, I draw attention to the body as both an instrument and an object of public policy. This allows us to see state power at work in unexpected ways. Most government projects designed to shape American bodies were part of what I call the advisory state. Advisory state projects are instituted through neither physical force nor legal obligation. I conceptualize the advisory state as both a repertoire of governing tools, such as quantification, advertising, and voluntary programming, and the actual implementation of these tools with the aim of encouraging citizens to engage in behaviors that cannot be explicitly legislated within the American political context. The advisory state is subtle but powerful. While state interest in weight and physique has been a constant for the last hundred years in the United States, the implementation of such policy has varied over time along a spectrum from the understated nudge to the coercive prod. In the modern context, these advisory state approaches to monitoring citizen physique appeared around World War I. Progressive Era nutrition science and increased attention to low-income Americans food choices were mobilized around physique when the United States entered the war. The Childrens Bureau used the context of anxiety over military unfitness to propel programs that encouraged mothers to weigh and measure their children and use the new height-weight tables to assess the childrens health. World War I brought attention to military unfitness, and spurred efforts to improve the bodies of future generations. That goal, alongside the fact that already existing child health projects could be easily adapted, made an advisory approach ideal in this moment. While this advisory approach worked in the 1910s and 1920s, in the following decades economic depression and another world war changed the landscape for American body projects. During the Great Depression, low-income young men who enlisted in the Civilian Conservation Corps experienced a more intensive state management of weight and physique than previous civilians. Since these men were welfare clients, and since state expansion was somewhat normalized through the New Deal, the agency had a lot of leeway in monitoring these mens bodies without it appearing to be federal overreach. The context of World War II then allowed for an even greater expansion of federal management of physique, this time through the Selective Service. Since the Selective Service was a draft system, both men who did and men who did not want to participate now found that they were part of a federal body project. This World War II moment transcended the gentle arm of the advisory state. The physical examinations had material consequences for the young men on the scale. While there was some discontent with the Selective Service and the draft, for the most part the context of war emergency, and vastly increased federal spending and power, meant that this unusual, aggressive federal body project raised few eyebrows. After World War II, however, the "hot war" context gave way to an extended Cold War. While the desire for strong men was as intense as ever, the changing political context necessitated a move back to gentler advisory state mechanisms for managing physique. The Presidents Council on Youth Fitness became an exemplary body project of the early years of the Cold War--years when federal power continued to grow in many arenas while, at the same time, the shadow of the U.S.S.R. convinced Americans to fear a powerful centralized government. As a result, the Presidents Council on Youth Fitness of the 1950s and 1960s encouraged fitness through a revival of advisory work. These body projects relied on relatively informal structures and voluntary efforts, with an emphasis on public service announcements, celebrity endorsements, and noncompulsory fitness tests. As the Presidents Council for Youth Fitness expanded the role of the advisory state in the lives of middle-class youth in the 1960s, other federal agencies began more aggressive body projects focused on low-income children. It was in this period that the nation rediscovered extreme poverty, and as criticism of government intensified over the course of the 1960s, the image of the emaciated black body came to symbolize the limits of existing social policy. Amid that critique, left-leaning politicians came to embrace an expansion of food aid in the late 1960s. By the 1970s, however, this fueled the political project of increased control over welfare clients diet and physique. While food aid expansions of the late 1960s offered material aid with limited control, by the early 1970s programs like WIC (the Supplemental Food for Women, Infants, and Children program) suggested the physiques of low-income Americans ought to be addressed through advice, not material aid. Liberals and conservatives alike argued that low-income Americans, especially mothers, were irrational consumers. Echoing the nutrition science arguments at the turn of the century, the dietary choices poor women made on behalf of their families were once again on trial. Building on previous twentieth-century body projects, WIC adopted advisory state techniques and then added a degree of force and compulsion not found in programs aimed at middle-class Americans. Advisory techniques of governance were applied regularly in modern American politics, and we must recognize their role. At the same time, we must also recognize that, by design, body projects were not applied consistently or equally. Concern over body image and physique has a long history in the United States. Late nineteenth-century dieting often focused on improving male bodies, alongside improving male financial and social status. In 1863 William Banting published A Letter on Corpulence . The pamphlet advocated limiting bread, sugar, and beer for rapid weight loss (four to five glasses of wine a day, though, was fine). Middle- to upper-class men increasingly fought body fat in the late nineteenth century, associating it with femininity and a lack of self-control. At the same time, plumpness was valued in women of the same socioeconomic class. Victorian women were encouraged to have curvier figures, and the corset reigned supreme. The famous Gibson Girl of the early 1900s offered a thinner but softer bodily aesthetic, although she showed more skin than the Victorian woman. This ideal for womens bodies had shifted by the early 1910s, as womens magazines, advertising, and silent films began adopting a Details ISBN0812250192 Author Rachel Louise Moran Publisher University of Pennsylvania Press Series Politics and Culture in Modern America Year 2018 ISBN-10 0812250192 ISBN-13 9780812250190 Format Hardcover Imprint University of Pennsylvania Press Place of Publication Pennsylvania Country of Publication United States Subtitle American Politics and the Shaping of the Modern Physique DEWEY 613.7 Pages 224 Publication Date 2018-05-30 Short Title Governing Bodies Language English UK Release Date 2018-05-30 AU Release Date 2018-05-30 NZ Release Date 2018-05-30 US Release Date 2018-05-30 Illustrations 15 illus. Translator David E. Green Edited by Stephen M. Grenier Birth 1955 Affiliation Univ Of Illinois At Urbana-champaign, Usa Position Associate Director Qualifications Ph.D. Alternative 9780812295061 Audience Tertiary & Higher Education We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:126660632;

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