The Temple of Perfection
A History of the Gym
Published on 1. March 2015
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-1-78023-449-6 (ISBN)
Description
The gym is often seen as an emblem of modernity, but its origins date back 2,800 years to the very beginnings of Western civilization. The Temple of Perfection charts the gym's long history, exploring its enduring appeal and growing popularity in a world increasingly obsessed with physical perfection, and attracted by the quick fixes of plastic surgery and miracle diet pills.
How we look after our bodies is based on the complex interplay of spiritual beliefs, moral discipline and aesthetic ideals that are entangled with the dynamics of political, social and sexual power. Today, training in a gym is primarily associated with individual fulfilment, but the gym has always had another role in creating men and women who are 'fit for purpose' - but exactly for what and whose purpose? In its many incarnations, the gym has been the stage on which the interests of the individual, the state, the media and the corporate world have intersected, sometimes with unintended consequences. Although the gym may look like a place where the self-obsessed pursue the superficial ideal of physical perfection, Eric Chaline argues that it has always been one of the principal battlefields of humanity's social, political, sexual and cultural wars.
The history of the gym is also a history of the human body: its real and idealized forms, artistic representation and public and private presentation. Although this book may not make you want to go to the gym, it will transform the way you think about it, your body and your attitude to fitness.
The Temple of Perfection has been reviewed by Mark Mason on Monocle 24 Radio's Arts Review. To listen to the review please click here.
Eric Chaline has been interviewed by Amanda Smith on ABC Radio's 'Bodysphere' programme. To listen to the interview please wait for the mp3 file to load, or to go to the website click here.
How we look after our bodies is based on the complex interplay of spiritual beliefs, moral discipline and aesthetic ideals that are entangled with the dynamics of political, social and sexual power. Today, training in a gym is primarily associated with individual fulfilment, but the gym has always had another role in creating men and women who are 'fit for purpose' - but exactly for what and whose purpose? In its many incarnations, the gym has been the stage on which the interests of the individual, the state, the media and the corporate world have intersected, sometimes with unintended consequences. Although the gym may look like a place where the self-obsessed pursue the superficial ideal of physical perfection, Eric Chaline argues that it has always been one of the principal battlefields of humanity's social, political, sexual and cultural wars.
The history of the gym is also a history of the human body: its real and idealized forms, artistic representation and public and private presentation. Although this book may not make you want to go to the gym, it will transform the way you think about it, your body and your attitude to fitness.
The Temple of Perfection has been reviewed by Mark Mason on Monocle 24 Radio's Arts Review. To listen to the review please click here.
Eric Chaline has been interviewed by Amanda Smith on ABC Radio's 'Bodysphere' programme. To listen to the interview please wait for the mp3 file to load, or to go to the website click here.
Reviews / Votes
There were so many rich connections in this book that by the time you sweep through two millennia to the moment when Arnold Schwarzenegger became the posing-pouch politician, who, while pumping iron, said things like, I was always dreaming about very powerful people, dictators and things like that, a lot of things clicked into place . . . Humans are now machined in these body-factories to better serve their corporate masters. * <i>The Times</i> * Chaline insightfully considers humankinds beliefs about the body as they have changed across history, providing an ample account of the technologies, practices and ideas undergirding the honing of physical strength and beauty. * <i>Irish Times</i> * Gym culture is well and truly entrenched in modern life, but despite this the complex history of the gym and its influence on Western individualism is rarely examined. In The Temple of Perfection Eric Chaline sets out to do just that, arguing that the gym is a battlefield for humanity's political, sexual and cultural wars. * <i>Attitude Magazine</i> * The book is learned and well-researched . . . it also furnishes some pretty interesting history. * <i>The Spectator</i> * In more recent years there has been a shift to the cultural turn in order to explore some of the wider meanings associated with sport and physical activities. Eric Chaline¹s engaging and thought provoking history of the gymnasium is part of this growing trend . . . The Temple of Perfection is an illuminating study that provides insights into historical practices of physical culture and further evidence of the ideological impact of sport and leisure. * <i>History Today</i> * The narrative, peppered with a number of amusing, as well as I didnt know that, anecdotes, makes for an engaging read, even for those not seeking to discover the sweat-stained origins of civilised thought. * Sports Book of the Month.com * Chalines book is full of interesting information, not to mention its useful historical overview, and its clear prose. * <i>The Gay & Lesbian Review</i> * You might not have your resolve to keep attending increased by reading The Temple of Perfection, but you will certainly get a better understanding of the gymnasium as a surprisingly large part of western history. Chaline, a gym devotee, uses the word temple in the title quite deliberately. In the modern world, a gym can be sort of a religious space where the faithful travel to a separate building, wear special clothes, eat special food, and take part in shared rituals that are performed with complete absorption and dedication. Gyms, Chaline shows in an amusing and comprehensive tour of a small facet of human endeavor, have from the beginning had those sorts of characteristics, but as societies have changed, so have their gyms. * <i>The Commercial Dispatch</i> * Eric Chaline has published an impressive book. He has managed artfully to contain the sweep of gym history from the ancient Greeks to me and you today in 272 well-written pages. If you seek one excellent book on the gym that is concise and authoritative, you need look no further than The Temple of Perfection * <i>Scandinavian Sport Studies Forum</i> * Gyms today are a familiar part of the life of millions of people across the globe, and a regular aspect of a fitness and leisure oriented culture. But they have a long and fascinating history, from the pedagogic and military cultures of the ancient world to the sun swept beaches of California in the 1940s and 50s, through to the metrosexual body culture of today. Gyms are about fitness, well being, beauty and pleasure, but always about the body. Through their history we can see how the body is shaped, inscribed, worshipped and displayed, in different ways at different times. Eric Chaline has produced a compelling history that illuminates not just the culture of the gym but also our shifting obsessions with the body through three thousand years. It is a fascinating read. * Jeffrey Weeks, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at London South Bank University, author of <i>The World We Have Won</i> and <i>The Languages of Sexuality</i> *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
29 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 138 mm
Width: 216 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-78023-449-6 (9781780234496)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
04/2015
Reaktion Books
€22.99
Available for download
Person
Eric Chaline has combined journalism, academic work and writing with sport and exercise, both as a practitioner and coach. He is the author of Simple Path to Yoga (2001) and Fifty Minerals that Changed the Course of History (2012). His first book for Reaktion was The Temple of Perfection: A History of the Gym (2015). He lives in London.
Content
Introduction, Illustrations, Chapter 1: The Pursuit of Arete, Chapter 2: The Rebirth of Vitruvian Man, Chapter 3: The Health of Nations, Chapter 4: The World's Strongest Man, Chapter 5: Pumping Iron, Chapter 6: Let's Get Physical, Chapter 7: Macho Man, Chapter 8: Consuming Fitness, Selected Bibliography, Index