Obesity: The Biography

• Considers debates over the causes of obesity
• Explores the cultural and social history of obesity from the ancient world up to the present day
• Looks at the changing attitudes towards the body over the centuries and how this has affected its development and treatment
• Sander L. Gilman is a leading authority in the social and cultural history of the body
• Part of the Biographies of Disease series, edited by William and Helen Bynum

Readership: Readers of popular science and those interested in the history of medicine and science

Sander L. Gilman, Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, Emory University, Atlanta, USA

"A thought-provoking perspective on one of our most urgent health problems." - Jo Marchant, New Scientist

"The details are enlightening, entertaining, and disturbing in equal measure (as are the wonderful ilustrations)." - Katherine Peddie, Financial Times

"Although his approach is comprehensive, even scholarly, Gilman brings a refreshingly light touch to a weighty topic." - Katherine Peddie, Financial Times

Prologue
1: From the ancients to Enlightenment dietetics
2: Dieting and the moral world
3: The physiologists and the psychologists
4: Fat in China
5: New causes; new solutions
6: Globesity - from Africa with love
Epilogue