Part 1 Introduction: body weight as a social problem, Jeffery Sobal, Donna Naurer. Part 2 Historical foundations: children and dieting - priorities in the US and France, Peter N. Stearns; fat boys and goody girls - Hilde Bruch's work on eating disorders and the post-war American zeitgeist, Paula Saukko. Part 3 Medical models: constitutional types, institutional forms - contending diagnostic and therapeutic models for obesity in early 20th century biomedical research, Mark T. Hamin; defining perfect and not-so-perfect bodies - the rise and fall of the Dreyer Method for the assessment of physique and fitness, 1918-1926, David Smith, Sally Horrocks. Part 4 Gendered dimensions: ideal weight/ ideal women - society constructs the female, Nita McKinley; the female gaze - gendered bodies and the dieting panopticon, John Germov, Lauren Williams; fleshing out the discomforts of femininity - female anorexia and male compulsive bodybuilding as attempts to achieve invulnerability, Martha McCaughley. Part 5 Institutional components: commodity knowledge in consumer culture - the role of nutritional health promotion in the making of the diet industry, Bryn Austin; the meaning of weight among dietitians, nutrition educators, and related health professionals, Ellen Parham. Part 6 Collective processes: too skinny or vibrant and healthy? weight management in the vegetarian movement, Donna Maurer; the size acceptance movement and the social construction of body weight, Jeffery Sobal. Bibliographical sketches of the contributors.