Fat history: bodies and beauty in the modern West

The turning point

The medical path : physicians and faddists

Fat as a turn-of-the-century target : why?

The misogynist phase : 1920s-1960s

Stepping up the pace : old motives, new methods

Fat city : American weight gains in the twentieth century

The evolution of weight control in France

The French regime

Atlantic crisscross : the Franco-American contrasts

Conclusion : the fat's in the fire.