Co-Sponsored by the University of Illinois at Chicago, Roosevelt University, Illinois Institute of Technology, and Northwestern University

Friday, September 17, 2004
3:30-5:00pm, The Newberry Library

Building an A1 Nation:
Physical Culture and the Quest for National Efficiency in Britain, 1890s-1939
Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska, University of Illinois at Chicago

The specter of physical deterioration and high rejection rates among military recruits in Britain inaugurated a national efficiency campaign which coupled imperialism with social reform and aimed to raise the standard of health and fitness of the worker and the soldier. The paper highlights the relationship between government initiatives and the patriotic physical culture movement which advocated modern techniques to enable men to develop their bodies before the First World War. Physical culture gained in popularity in the 1920s and faced with a growing threat from Nazi Germany, the goverment launched a national fitness campaign to build an "A1" nation in the late 1930s.

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