The research for this extensive, two volume project... represents a comprehensive effort to establish a complete context from which the sport of bodybuilding ar

“Map[s] the shifting definitions of gender and masculinity . . . provides the rare insight into the world of bodybuilding that only an insider could offer.”

They claimed to be the mightiest men in the world. For twenty-five years, before the outbreak of the First World War, professional strongmen were the pop idols