Fat: A Cultural History of Obesity

The modern world is faced with a terrifying new‘disease’, that of ‘obesity’. As people getfatter, we have come to see excess weight as unhealthy, morallyrepugnant and socially damaging. Fat it seems has long been anational problem and each age, culture and tradition have alldefined a point beyond which excess weight is unacceptable, ugly orcorrupting.This fascinating new book by Sander Gilman looks at theinterweaving of fact and fiction about obesity, tracing publicconcern from the mid-nineteenth century to the modern day. He lookscritically at the source of our anxieties, covering issues such aschildhood obesity, the production of food, media coverage of thesubject and the emergence of obesity in modern China. Written as acultural history, the book is particularly concerned with thecultural meanings that have been attached to obesity over time andto explore the implications of these meanings for wider society.The history of these debates is the history of fat in culture, fromnineteenth-century opera to our global dieting obsession. Fat, ACultural History of Obesity is a vivid and absorbing culturalguide to one of the most important topics in modern society.