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The Turnin g Poin t Between 189 0 an d 1910 , middle-class Americ a bega n it s ongoin g battle agains t bod y fat . Neve r previousl y a n ite m o f systemati c public concern , dietin g o r guil t abou t no t dietin g becam e a n increasing stapl e o f privat e life , alon g wit h a surprisingl y stron g current of disgust directed against people labeled obese. In contrast to patterns in the nineteenth century, when body styles, particularly but not exclusively for women, shifted faddishl y ever y few decades, the growing passion for slimness set a framework tha t would last at least a century. To be sure, the slimness ideals would be occasion ally modified i n the twentieth centur y — women's breasts and hip s were variabl e t o a degre e — but o n th e whol e the y no t onl y per sisted bu t intensified . Th e initia l crusad e agains t fat , shapin g u p around 1900 , woul d see m tam e b y late r twentieth-centur y stan dards , but it set the fundamental culture . Historians have known about the turn awa y from plumpnes s fo r some time , thoug h nonhistorica l commentar y ofte n misse s th e point by confusing th e intensification o f dieting after World War II with the real origins of the phenomenon. The on e good history of dieting identifie s th e turn-of-the-centur y change. 1 S o d o severa l studies of women's fashion history. 2 S o does the excitin g historica l work on the nineteenth-century origin s of modern eatin g disorders (about which we may know more than we know about changes in normal eatin g patterns i n th e sam e period). 3 Research o f this sort not only must be acknowledged bu t also can b e utilized t o craft a fuller accoun t o f this quiet shift i n American worries . For existing treatments fall short of a completely adequate account of the transi3 1 4 | The Turning Point tion i n severa l respects . Eve n Hille l Schwartz , th e pionee r i n exploring th e American socia l histor y o f dieting , oddl y slight s th e initial tur n t o slimness i n his haste to get into the crass commercia l exploitations o f th e ne w standard s i n th e late r twentiet h century . The resul t is , first, an incomplet e gras p o f the rang e o f attacks o n fat tha t bega n t o emerg e aroun d 1900 , not onl y i n fashio n o r i n specific slimmin g device s bu t i n divers e publi c commen t a s well. A fulle r histor y wil l admittedl y confir m existin g understandin g o f the chronolog y involved , bu t wil l ad d scop e an d significanc e t o what was more tha n a cosmetic shift . Secon d an d more important , existing account s d o not really explai n th e shift itself . Causatio n i s lightly passe d ove r with remark s abou t th e triumph o f the ideal s of athleticism fo r wome n (whic h i s rathe r a manifestatio n o f th e new trend s tha n a ful l explanation ) o r wit h assumption s abou t commercial manipulations . Finally , becaus e causatio n i s not thor oughly understood , th e dimension s o f the chang e itsel f hav e bee n oddly downplayed. Thi s contributes , in turn, to the general neglec t of dietin g b y othe r socia l historian s dealin g wit h dee p cultura l change i n th e earl y twentiet h century , a neglec t tha t ha s limite d the scop e o f otherwise excitin g findings whil e trivializin g die t his tory itself . The fac t i s that th e adven t o f systematic concer n abou t dietin g was a n importan t...

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