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Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man: The White Male Body and the Challenge of Modernity in America Books
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List Price: $18.00Amazon.com's Price: $16.20 You Save: $1.80 (10%)Prices subject to change.
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9780809055470
ISBN: 0809055473
Label: Hill and Wang
Manufacturer: Hill and Wang
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: July 02, 2002
Publisher: Hill and Wang
Sales Rank: 743361
Studio: Hill and Wang
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
An important new work from one of our premier cultural historians.
Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man considers the surprisingly complex evolution in representations of the white male body in late-nineteenth-century America, during years of rapid social transformation. John F. Kasson argues that three exemplars of physical prowess -- Eugen Sandow, an international vaudeville star and bodybuilder; Edgar Rice Burroughs's fictional hero Tarzan; and the great escape artist Harry Houdini -- represented both an ancient ideal of manhood and a modern commodity. They each extolled self-development, self-fulfillment, and escape from the confines of civilization while at the same time reasserting its values. This liberally illustrated, persuasively argued study analyzes the thematic links among these figures and places them in their rich historical and cultural context.
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
I think the combination of the academic sounding subtitle, and the rather lurid cover art illustrate the problem this book presents; it never seems to be sure whether it's trying to be PH.d thesis or a potboiler.
The story it tells is fascinating, to be sure. It's remarkable to reflect how much social and technological turmoil the US was in during the time period examined, and how much of a struggle life was for many. This is the context from which Sandow, Houdini and Borroughs arose, ... Read More
Rating: -
This relatively short and well-illustrated book presents brief portraits of three contemporaries from the turn of the last century: bodybuilder Engen Sandow, escape artist Harry Houdini, and the fictional Tarzan (as well as his creator Edgar Rice Burroughs). Kasson's thesis is twofold: that their popularity was emblematic of the insecurity that white males felt in an increasingly bureaucratic world that threatened racial, sexual, and cultural hegemony and that their semi-mythical qualities were instrumental ... Read More
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