Free Ebook Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man: The White Male Body and the Challenge of Modernity in America, by John F. Kasson
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Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man: The White Male Body and the Challenge of Modernity in America, by John F. Kasson
Free Ebook Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man: The White Male Body and the Challenge of Modernity in America, by John F. Kasson
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A remarkable new work from one of our premier historians
In his exciting new book, John F. Kasson examines the signs of crisis in American life a century ago, signs that new forces of modernity were affecting men's sense of who and what they really were.
When the Prussian-born Eugene Sandow, an international vaudeville star and bodybuilder, toured the United States in the 1890s, Florenz Ziegfeld cannily presented him as the "Perfect Man," representing both an ancient ideal of manhood and a modern commodity extolling self-development and self-fulfillment. Then, when Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan swung down a vine into the public eye in 1912, the fantasy of a perfect white Anglo-Saxon male was taken further, escaping the confines of civilization but reasserting its values, beating his chest and bellowing his triumph to the world. With Harry Houdini, the dream of escape was literally embodied in spectacular performances in which he triumphed over every kind of threat to masculine integrity -- bondage, imprisonment, insanity, and death. Kasson's liberally illustrated and persuasively argued study analyzes the themes linking these figures and places them in their rich historical and cultural context. Concern with the white male body -- with exhibiting it and with the perils to it --reached a climax in World War I, he suggests, and continues with us today.
- Sales Rank: #722486 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Hill and Wang
- Published on: 2002-07-02
- Released on: 2002-07-02
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .61" w x 5.50" l, .55 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 288 pages
Features
- Used Book in Good Condition
From Publishers Weekly
"Me Tarzan, You Jane. Me White, Me Better." That was the subtext not only of Edgar Rice Burroughs's novel Tarzan of the Apes, but also of magician and escape artist Harry Houdini's career, as well as that of vaudeville star and bodybuilder Eugene Sandow, according to this illuminating and engrossing cultural study of modern masculinity. Exploring how public presentations of the white male body, particularly in popular culture, reinforced both gender and racial superiority in the formative years of this century, Kasson (professor of American studies at the University of North Carolina) deftly weds these three major figures into a single narrative. Sandow embodied pure male form and strength in response to women gaining more social power, Kasson says, while Houdini represented the survival of the threatened male body in an age when the state was imposing more control over the individual. Meanwhile, the fictional Ape Man symbolized the inherent mastery of whiteness in an increasingly complex racialized world. Drawing on a wide range of sources including vaudeville programs and photos, newspaper reports, personal letters and autobiographies, as well as medical texts, historical accounts and cultural theory Kasson manages to weave in other (mostly forgotten, but historically important) figures such as Julian Eltinge, the world's most noted female impersonator, and spiritualist Mina Crandon, who was exposed as a fraud by Houdini. Witty and well written, this is a top-notch work of cultural history that can be read with great enjoyment by general readers and social historians alike.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Here is an unusual and thought-provoking look at the evolving concept of manhood from the late 19th century through the World War I era, when social, technological, business, and urban changes reshaped many traditional perceptions. Kasson (Rudeness and Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America) presents a well-researched study focusing upon three figures who underscored the male image in the public eye albeit a dominant, white-male image that remained throughout ensuing decades. Eugene Sandow, a bodybuilder and vaudevillian known as the Perfect Man, set a standard for physical perfection. Harry Houdini performed death-defying magic that emphasized triumph over physical circumstances at a time when technology seemed to threaten individuality. Through his novels, Edgar Rice Burroughs created ideal heroes, particularly in his "Tarzan" series, who imposed control and values upon wild and dangerous surroundings. Using these popular figures as a basis for discussion, Kasson examines a rich variety of trends, customs, values, and philosophies, offering unique commentary on issues pertaining to manliness in modern society. Numerous illustrations enhance this fluidly written text. For academic libraries and large sociology and history collections. Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, NJ
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Sex and danger sell. Kasson explores how audiences in the late 1800s and early 1900s were thrilled and titillated by the performances of Eugen Sandow, known as the "Perfect Man"; Harry Houdini, the daredevil escape artist and magician; and Edgar Rice Burroughs' creation Tarzan. All three male images effectively used the double-edged sword of sexuality between repression and exhibitionism that existed in society to avoid censors and entice men and women to the theater. Kasson theorizes it was this modernized concept of the white male, someone of European descent, the right class, amazing strength and ingenuity, and a touch exotic, that became a commodity that was displayed and sold to the public. He suggests this modernized ideal was formed and flourished in this period because the white male wanted to re-exert his superiority. It also afforded women and some men the opportunity to view and fanaticize about these scantily clad men exhibiting muscles, escaping bondage, and rescuing people in a way society deemed acceptable. Examples of these types of male idols still exist today in the personas of James Bond, the spy in Mission: Impossible, the Terminator, and other films. This excellent, thought-provoking book explains how it all started. Eileen Hardy
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Promoting Perfection
By krebsman
I read this book years ago when the hardbound edition first came out. At that time, it just struck me as interesting light reading. But since then I have thought about this book quite often. There's more to this book than "interesting light reading," which is why I'm reviewing the book after several years. The concept of an ideal man is at least as old as the Greeks. Greek statuary was admired and revered for its depiction of idealized youths. Kasson traces the late 19th/early 20th century take on this idea by focusing on three men who represented different versions of a "perfect man." Early bodybuilder Eugene Sandow created a sensation in Vaudeville with his act in which he not only lifted huge weights, but also impersonated Greek statues come to life while wearing only a fig leaf. Then there's Tarzan, a fictional character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, who is not only physically perfect, but he is uncorrupted by modernity. Tarzan caught fire with a generation of urban Americans nostalgic for a less sophisticated past. But could a modern-day Tarzan survive in the urban jungle? He would need to be wilier. Enter Houdini, an exhibitionist like Sandow, who used his sex appeal to sell his illusion and escape act. Kasson doesn't really draw much of a conclusion from all this. But he presents the material in such a way that the reader draws his own conclusions.
The section dealing with Burroughs was the part of the book that I've thought about most, because it deals with the role of magazines in American culture. Kasson casually notes that magazines were invented only to get people to look at advertising. Now this for me was a bombshell, although I did not realize it at the time. I kept seeing evidence of its truth when new magazines debuted to popularize products of dubious worth (i.e., cigar-smoking and tattoos).
This is quick and entertaining reading that has far more depth than at first appears. Worth reading. Four stars.
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Three biographical tales linked loosely by a simple thesis
By D. Cloyce Smith
This relatively short and well-illustrated book presents brief portraits of three contemporaries from the turn of the last century: bodybuilder Engen Sandow, escape artist Harry Houdini, and the fictional Tarzan (as well as his creator Edgar Rice Burroughs). Kasson's thesis is twofold: that their popularity was emblematic of the insecurity that white males felt in an increasingly bureaucratic world that threatened racial, sexual, and cultural hegemony and that their semi-mythical qualities were instrumental in changing the collective sense of the ideal man.
These stories are undeniably fascinating and informative, and Kasson's thesis is fairly straightfoward. Because Kasson's argument seems easily supported, he is able to focus more on biographical rather than thematic details and includes much information that is not necessary to his argument. As a result, I found myself wishing several times that I were reading instead the three major biographies on which much of his narrative is based: David Chapman's "Sandow the Magnificent," Kenneth Silverman's "Houdini!!!," and Irwin Porges's "Edgar Rice Burroughs."
A terrific storyteller, Kasson is likewise unable to avoid including several vignettes that have no direct bearing on his thesis. This is not necessarily a bad thing: his account of female impersonator Julian Eltinge is certainly intriguing, but this section seems peripheral to his discussion. Likewise, he discusses Houdini's obsession with debunking spiritualists, especially Mina ("Margery") Crandon, but it's never really quite clear what this has to do with societal perceptions of the white male body. Kasson attempts, unconvincingly, to present this as a battle of the sexes, but admits that Houdini directed his ire toward all psychic charlatans, regardless of their sex. Margery just happened to be among the most "talented" of the spiritualists. When he does finally return to his thesis, the prose turns to semi-parodic academic-speak: "In exposing Margery's fraud, Houdini also exposed her as a woman who, despite all her guides and talents, could only sham the phallus."
Fortunately, these occasional faults seldom mar the overall presentation. Not only did I enjoy these tales, but Kasson has piqued my interest enough to make me want to read more about these three paragons of "masculinity."
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
A must read for young and older men
By Roc
Wonderful documentation of how we perceive ourselves as a modern man. Since 90% of the media is devoted to on or about women this book is definetly a breath of fresh air in its focus on little explored territory regarding the sociological development and in some instances retardation of men in our wetern society.
John Kasson is a wonderful writer and historian in the best sense of the word as he is appears genuinely excited about his discoveries and piecing together of his thesis. That combination never misses!
I'd reccommend this highly to anyone as a gift to a young man when he hits his later teens or to any man who has pumped the weights and read great books-ergo: Brain & Brawn. Worth the read!
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