In a career spanning three decades, weightlifter Tommy Kono won three Olympic medals and eight world championships, captured 11 U.S. national and three Pan-American titles, and set 26 world records--all before the advent of steroids. A Nisei American, Kono was interned at Tule Lake, California, during World War II. Weighing only 105 pounds at age 14 and suffering from asthma, he began competing at a time of heightened racial and political prejudice against Asians, and in an era predating modern coaching techniques, nutritional aids and training facilities. This definitive biography covers the life and career of an exceptional athlete who defied disadvantage and achieved international renown.

For most of the twentieth century, the "Mr. America" image epitomized muscular manhood. From humble beginnings in 1939 at a small gym in Schenectady, New York, the Mr. America Contest became the world's premier bodybuilding event over the next thirty years. Rooted in ancient Greek virtues of health, fitness, beauty, and athleticism, it showcased some of the finest specimens of American masculinity. Interviewing nearly one hundred major figures in the physical culture movement (including twenty-five Mr. Americas) and incorporating copious printed and manuscript sources, John D. Fair has created the definitive study of this iconic phenomenon. Revealing the ways in which the contest provided a model of functional and fit manhood, Mr. America captures the event's path to idealism and its slow descent into obscurity. As the 1960s marked a turbulent transition in American society-from the civil rights movement to the rise of feminism and increasing acceptance of homosexuality-Mr. America changed as well. Exploring the influence of other bodily displays, such as the Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia contests and the Miss America Pageant, Fair focuses on commercialism, size obsession, and drugs that corrupted the competition's original intent. Accessible and engaging, Mr. America is a compelling portrayal of the glory days of American muscle.

From the 1930s to the 1980s, the capital of weightlifting in America was York, Pennsylvania, the home of the York Barbell Company. Bob Hoffman, the founder of York Barbell, propagated an ideology of success for Americans seeking physical improvement. Often called the "Father of World Weightlifting," Hoffman was a pioneer in marketing barbells and health foods. He popularized weight training and inaugurated a golden age of American weightlifting. Muscletown USA--part biography, part business history, and part sports history--chronicles how Hoffman made York the mecca of manly culture for millions of followers worldwide.

Hoffman created his so-called muscle empire out of an oil-burner business that he started in the early 1920s. Within a decade, his passion for sport exceeded his need to produce oil burners and by the outset of the Depression he began manufacturing barbells at the factory. He soon discovered a willing public of aspiring weightlifters like himself who would buy not only barbells but also health and fitness products. Hoffman soon recruited a remarkable group of athletes, whom he tagged his "York Gang." He gave these men jobs in the factory, where they trained for national and international meets. Gradually, Hoffman emerged as one of the most prominent muscle peddlers in America, using his fame and fortune to promote competitive weightlifting, bodybuilding, and powerlifting. Muscletown USA reveals other innovations in which Hoffman played a major role, including weight training for athletes, health foods, bottled spring water, isometrics, and women's weightlifting. Even anabolic steroids, first used by weightlifters in the early 1960s, were a direct outgrowth of the fitness culture spawned by Hoffman.

Meticulously researched and engagingly written, Fair's book will appeal to a wide range of readers, including anyone fascinated by American sports history and the iron game.