1st Edition
Muscular Judaism The Jewish Body and the Politics of Regeneration
Providing valuable insights into an element of European nationalism and modernist culture, this book explores the development of the 'Zionist body' as opposed to the traditional stereotype of the physically weak, intellectual Jew. It charts the cultural and intellectual history showing how the 'Muscle Jew' developed as a political symbol of national regeneration.
Introduction 1. The Origins of Muscular Judaism 2. The Rhetoric of Regeneration: "Clear Heads, Solid Stomachs, and Hard Muscles" 3. The Aesthetics of Regeneration: Martin Buber, E.M. Lilien, and the Aesthetic State 4. The Gymnastics of Regeneration: The Anatomo-Politics of the Jewish Body 5. The Land of Regeneration: Seafaring Jews and the Zionist Colonial Imaginary 6. Soldiers of Regeneration: The Military Might of Old-New Maccabees and the Great War. Concluding Remarks
Biography
Todd Samuel Presner
'This is a seminal book. It is a book that any one interested in European thought from the 1860s to the Holocaust and the founding of the state of Israel must read. It is a book of depth and breadth; one that reflects the inordinate strength of a discipline about how to flex its muscles without embarrassment.' - Sander L. Gilman, Emory University
'Presner's Muscular Judaism is evidence of excellent scholarship. His book is an outcome of a serious, illuminating, and original dissertation project that successfully integrates its insights into a well-established field of research and contributes to an ongoing critical discussion on the origins and implications of the Zionist discourse. The book is very well written, its arguments are clear and convincing. Presner's use of theory is useful but not exaggerated, and his historiographical methods are very productive' - Journal of Israeli History, September 2008
