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

本项目研究美国联邦政府如何投资于科学并利用科学来创建特定类型的标准。 对健身与健康的关注，看似当代的关注，其实可以追溯到19世纪世纪农业实验站的卡路里实验、20年代家政局的营养建议，以及50年代总统健身委员会的健身项目。 虽然这些项目的影响是非凡的，这些多个机构和局从来没有被理解为关键的利益相关者在一个良好的公民或合适的机构不断讨论。政治历史学家在很大程度上回避了体格（体重、体型、肌肉组织）这一看似文化的领域，而文化历史学家则倾向于忽视健康的政治和科学方面。这项研究提供了一个纠正，使国家的投资和科学的作用，在正常机构的定义的前列。 该项目调查了不同的政府机构和科学专业知识类型，以及参与体重和肌肉组织标准变化的政府机构。研究集中在三个主要问题上。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的政治含义是什么？也就是说，这些标准是否同时包括和排除作为正常公民的个人？调查人员的方法是以大量的档案工作为基础的。文件和材料通过定性研究进行审查，主要包括关键的文本分析。这样的历史奖学金提供了洞察国家机构的复杂性和科学专业知识的形式，并提供了一个分析框架，以研究当代关于健康和健身的辩论。该项目以一种有望影响政策研究、人体的人类学和社会学研究以及科学史的方式，揭示了一段被遗忘的历史，并将其理论化。它还引起了人们对一些未充分研究的联邦档案馆的关注，如家政局和总统健身委员会。它的主题是伟大的当代利益，因为它提供了必要的历史背景，目前的辩论政府干预美国标准的重量和健身。

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.