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Informationen zum Autor Conor Heffernan is Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport at Ulster University, UK, and Chair of the British Society of Sports History. The author of A History of Physical Culture in Ireland , The History of Physical Culture and Indian Club Swinging and the Birth of Global Fitness , Conor has published over fifty peer-reviewed articles and runs a history of fitness website, ‘Physical Culture Study’. Klappentext Emerging in colonial India, the fitness fad that was Indian Club Swinging became a global exercise practice in the early 19th century. Used by physicians, soldiers, gymnasts, children and athletes alike, clubs were used to solve numerous social concerns and ills, and often prescribed to treat everything from depression to spinal abnormalities. This book provides a definitive account of the rise and spread of club swinging as it spread from India to Europe and America, asking why and how it became so popular. Discussing the global, commercial fitness culture of the 19th century, Indian Club Swinging and the Birth of Global Fitness explores how the popularity of this exercise reflected much deeper global and domestic concerns about body image, military preparation and education. Addressing broader questions about nationalism, gender, race and popular commerce across the British Empire, it highlights the origins of our modern transnational fitness culture and shows how it intersected with global and colonial understandings of health, medicine and education. Vorwort This monograph traces the early origins of the modern fitness industry through a study of Indian Club Swinging, the world’s first global fitness fad that began in India and spread to the west. Zusammenfassung Emerging in colonial India, the fitness fad that was Indian Club Swinging became a global exercise practice in the early 19th century. Used by physicians, soldiers, gymnasts, children and athletes alike, clubs were used to solve numerous social concerns and ills, and often prescribed to treat everything from depression to spinal abnormalities. This book provides a definitive account of the rise and spread of club swinging as it spread from India to Europe and America, asking why and how it became so popular. Discussing the global, commercial fitness culture of the 19th century, Indian Club Swinging and the Birth of Global Fitness explores how the popularity of this exercise reflected much deeper global and domestic concerns about body image, military preparation and education. Addressing broader questions about nationalism, gender, race and popular commerce across the British Empire, it highlights the origins of our modern transnational fitness culture and shows how it intersected with global and colonial understandings of health, medicine and education. Inhaltsverzeichnis Abstract List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Early Origins, Encounters and Exchanges, The Indian Clubs in India2. Medicine and Muscles, Discovering Indian Clubs in Victorian Britain3. Indian Clubs and Transnational Fitness in the Mid-Nineteenth Century4. Swinging Back Round? Indian Clubs and Global Fitness from the Mid-Nineteenth Century5. Physical Culture and the End of Club Swinging? Indian Clubs at the Turn of the Century6. The Last Hurrah for Recreational Club SwingingConclusion Bibliography...
