The Cold War Obesity Crisis: Fatness, Public Health, and Medical Science in the United States, 1940-1970

1951年，美国公共卫生服务机构宣布，肥胖症被重新解释为一种成瘾性疾病，是美国最大的健康问题。该项目将首次研究这场早期肥胖危机的过程，分析大众认知、生物医学科学和卫生政策之间的相互作用，所有这些都是在战后美国的政治和文化背景下进行的。研究将特别集中在几个生物医学学科及其科学领袖之间相互竞争的努力，以确定问题并形成对它的回应。目的是了解科学和医学在这一事件中与社会力量的关系，并为当今的全球肥胖危机吸取教训。

In 1951 the US Public Health Service declared obesity, newly reinterpreted as an addictive disorder, to be the nation’s leading health problem. This project will be the first to study the course of this early obesity crisis, analysing the interaction between popular perception, biomedical science and health policy, all in the political and cultural context of postwar America. Research will especially focus on the competing efforts of several biomedical disciplines and their scientific leaders to define the problem and shape responses to it. The goal is to understand the ways science and medicine related to social forces in the episode, and to derive lessons for today’s global obesity crisis.