Book Reviews : John Bale: Sports Geography. London: E. & F.N. Spon, 1989. Pp. 268, CDN $ 29.50

Abstract

Six prominent historians explore changing American attitudes to a range of bodily concerns in this handsome, well illustrated volume. The emphasis is upon innovators, ideas, popular practices and debates rather than social construction. T. J. Jackson Lears concludes from an examination of personal hygiene advertisements that despite the stereotype of repressive Victorians, during the early twentieth century the dominant morality became more controlling rather than less so, even during the &dquo;free and easy&dquo; twenties. Michael Harris ponders the persistence of iron tonics, attributing it as much to the mythical properties of the