The Age of Fitness

How the Body Came to Symbolize Success and Achievement

Jürgen Martschukat, Alex Skinner

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English

Polity Press
29 January 2021

Sociology & anthropology

We live in the age of fitness. Hundreds of thousands of people run marathons and millions go jogging in local parks, work out in gyms, cycle, swim, or practice yoga. The vast majority are not engaged in competitive sport and are not trying to win any medals. They just want to get fit. Why this modern preoccupation with fitness?

In this new book, Jürgen Martschukat traces the roots of our modern preoccupation with fitness back to the birth of modern societies in the eighteenth century, showing how the idea of fitness was interwoven with modernity’s emphasis on perpetual optimization and renewal. But it is only in the period since the 1970s, he argues, that the age of fitness truly emerged, as part and parcel of our contemporary neoliberal era. Neoliberalism enjoins individuals to work on themselves, to cultivate themselves in body and mind. Fitness becomes a guiding principle of social life, an era-defining network of discourses and practices that shape individuals’ actions and self-conceptions. The pursuit of fitness becomes a cultural repertoire that is deeply ingrained in our institutions and way of life.

This wide-ranging book shows how deeply fitness is inscribed in modern societies, and how important fitness has become to success or failure, recognition or exclusion, in a society that sets great store by self-responsibility, performance, market, and competition. It will be of great value not only to those interested in sport and fitness, but also to anyone concerned with the conditions of success and failure in our societies today.

By: Jürgen Martschukat
Translated by: Alex Skinner
Imprint: Polity Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 231mm, Width: 160mm, Spine: 31mm
Weight: 522g
ISBN: 9781509545636
ISBN 10: 1509545638
Pages: 220
Publication Date: 29 January 2021
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

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

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

Reviews for The Age of Fitness: How the Body Came to Symbolize Success and Achievement

Jurgen 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. Professor Douglas Booth, Thompson Rivers University, Canada 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 endeavour 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 potency, and the neoliberal models of society that emphasize individualized performance and competition. Mitchell Dean, Professor of Public Governance, Copenhagen Business School