Leisure and Pleasure: Reshaping and Revealing the New Zealand Body 1900-1960

AUP, 2003. In good condition. Precious owner's inscription inside.

This engaging book explores the modern body at leisure, beginning by tracing the influential New Zealand tour of Eugen Sandow, the most famous strongman of his age. His body delighted audiences and inspired many to reshape and then reveal their toned torsos. His rich legacy is examined as Daley takes us through the gyms of the early twentieth century, the rise of beauty contests, the new crazes of swimming and sunbathing, the advent of organised nudism and the display of young bodies in parks and playgrounds.

Daley also argues for the need to move away from the common assumption that geographical boundaries necessarily contain a unique national story. The leisure and pleasure lives of modern New Zealanders were intimately connected with global developments, whether this meant watching an international strongman perform in his leopard-skin knickers or looking to the Hitler Youth Movement for inspiration.