Doctoral Dissertation Research: Federal Policy and Scientific Research on American Physique

这个项目考察了美国联邦政府如何投资和使用科学来创建特定类型的标准。虽然对健身和健康的关注似乎是当代的问题，但它们实际上可以追溯到19世纪农业试验站的卡路里实验，20世纪20年代家政局的营养建议，以及20世纪50年代总统身体健康委员会的健身项目。尽管这些项目的影响非同寻常，但在关于好公民或健康机构的持续讨论中，这些多个机构和局从未被理解为关键的利益攸关方。政治史学家在很大程度上回避了体型(体重、体型、肌肉)这一看似文化的领域，而文化史学家往往忽视了健康的政治和科学方面。这项研究提供了一种纠正，突出了国家的投资和科学在定义正常身体方面的作用。这个项目调查了不同的政府机构和不同类型的科学专业知识，以及涉及体重和肌肉标准变化的政府机构。这项研究主要围绕三个问题展开。首先，体格是如何成为美国联邦政府关注的问题的？第二，关于身体测量的决定是如何做出的，生理标准是如何设定的？这些标准是如何以及为什么随着时间的推移而变化的？第三，这些不断变化的身体标准有什么政治影响？也就是说，这些标准是否同时包括和排除了作为正常公民的个人？调查人员的方法基于广泛的档案工作。文献和材料通过定性研究进行审查，主要包括批判性文本分析。这种历史学术为我们提供了对国家机构的复杂性和科学专业知识形式的洞察，并为研究当代关于健康和健身的辩论提供了一个分析框架。该项目以一种有望影响政策研究、人体人类学和社会学研究以及科学史的方式，揭示并理论化了一段基本上被遗忘的历史。它还引起了人们对一些未得到充分研究的联邦档案收藏的关注，如家庭经济局和总统身体健康委员会。它的主题具有极大的当代意义，因为它为当前关于政府干预美国体重和健康标准的辩论提供了必要的历史背景。

This project examines how the U.S. federal government invested in and used science to create specific kinds of standards. While the focus on fitness and health seem like contemporary concerns, they actually date back to the calorie experiments of 19th century Agricultural Experiment Stations, the 1920s nutrition advice of the Home Economics Bureau, and the 1950s fitness projects of the President's Commission on Physical Fitness. Although the impact of such projects has been extraordinary, these multiple agencies and bureaus have never been understood as critical stakeholders in a continuous discussion of good citizens or fit bodies. Political historians have largely avoided the seemingly cultural domain of physique (weight, size, musculature), while cultural historians have tended to overlook the political and scientific aspects of fitness. This research offers a corrective, bringing the state's investment and the role of science in definitions of normal bodies to the fore. This project investigates the different government agencies and types of scientific expertise and government agencies involved in changes in weight and musculature standards. The research centers on three main questions. First, how did physique become legitimized as a concern of the U.S. federal government? Second, how were decisions about physical measurements made, and how were physiological standards set? How and why did these standards change over time? Third, what were the political implications of these changing body standards? That is, did these standards simultaneously include and exclude individuals as normal citizens? The investigators' methodology is based in extensive archival work. Documents and materials are examined through qualitative study, consisting primarily of critical textual analysis. Such historical scholarship offers insight into the complexity of state agencies and forms of scientific expertise, and provides an analytical framework to study contemporary debates about health and fitness. The project uncovers and theorizes a largely forgotten history in a way that promises to impact policy studies, anthropological and sociological studies of the body, and the history of science. It also brings attention to some understudied federal archive collections such as the Home Economics Bureau and the President's Commission on Physical Fitness. Its subject matter is of great contemporary interest, as it provides needed historical context for current debates over government intervention in American standards for weight and fitness.