Mr. America: How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr Macfadden Transformed the Nation Through Sex, Salad, and the Ultimate Starvation Diet - Softcover

Adams, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060594764 ISBN 13: 9780060594763

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 2010

Synopsis

During two feverish decades between the world wars, Bernarr Macfadden did more to educate the world about healthy eating, alternative medicine, regular sexual activity, and exercise than anyone in history. His disciples included Upton Sinclair and Charles Atlas; among his employees were Walter Winchell, Ed Sullivan, and Eleanor Roosevelt. He launched the worst newspaper in U.S. history, founded a whole-grain utopian community in the New Jersey suburbs, trained fascist cadets for Mussolini, and came within a hair's breadth of being elected senator from Florida—running on a physical fitness platform. Yet today few have heard of this larger-than-life entrepreneur who changed American society. In Mr. America, Mark Adams illuminates Macfadden's captivating, ambitious, and unparalleled life.

About this title

About the Author:

Mark Adams is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in GQ, Outside, the New York Times Magazine, Fortune, and New York. He lives near New York City with his wife and three sons.

Review:

“In this impressive biography, Adams chronicles how, in the first half of the 20th century, Macfadden opened some of the country’s original health food restaurants and communes, assembled early bodybuilding shows, and built a $30 million magazine empire.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“An entertaining, enlightening read that . . . gives Macfadden his overdue legacy. . . . Adams deftly wrestles this messy, Herculean life into shape. . . . Even from the grave, it seems, Bernarr Macfadden continues to educate and shape America.” (The Los Angeles Times)

“As recounted by Adams (who self-tested some of Macfadden’s occasionally extreme advice about fasting and exercise), the improbable saga of this eccentric self-made guru shows that our mania for fad diets and get-fit-quick schemes has deep, and deeply weird, roots. Grade: A-” (Entertainment Weekly)

“Every decade ushers in a new ‘revolutionary’ exercise fad (or three). But as Mr. America points out, most of them probably owe a nod to Bernarr Macfadden and his magazine Physical Culture.” (Men’s Journal)

“Hilarious. . . . Delightful. . . . If Macfadden hadn’t existed, we would have had to invent him.” (Louis Bayard, The Washington Post)

“A remarkable story. . . . It is to Mark Adams’s great credit that, in Mr. America, he has rescued from obscurity a man whose influence is still felt in this country more than a century after he muscled his way onto the national scene.” (The Wall Street Journal)

“This book is a delightful and colorful piece of true Americana. Enjoy every twist and turn of it.” (Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love)

“With such a great eccentric as his subject, Mark Adams shrewdly gets out of the way (and gives Macfadden’s extreme weight-loss regimens a try.” (Details)

“Mr. America is a must read for those interested in health and fitness.” (The St. Petersburg Times)

“Fascinating. . . . Adams spins a lively yarn in this biography of pioneering health-and-fitness guru Bernarr Macfadden. . . . A funny, informative history of a true American eccentric and the national preoccupation with health and fitness.” (Kirkus Reviews)

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0060594764
• ISBN 13: 9780060594763
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320