Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man: The White Male Body and the Challenge of Modernity in America

An important new work from one of our premier cultural historians.

Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man considers the surprisingly complex evolution in representations of the white male body in late-nineteenth-century America, during years of rapid social transformation. John F. Kasson argues that three exemplars of physical prowess — Eugen Sandow, an international vaudeville star and bodybuilder; Edgar Rice Burroughs's fictional hero Tarzan; and the great escape artist Harry Houdini — represented both an ancient ideal of manhood and a modern commodity. They each extolled self-development, self-fulfillment, and escape from the confines of civilization while at the same time reasserting its values. This liberally illustrated, persuasively argued study analyzes the thematic links among these figures and places them in their rich historical and cultural context.

John F. Kasson, who teaches history and American studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the author of Amusing the Million, Rudeness and Civility, and Civilizing the Machine.

John Kasson here examines the signs of crisis in American life a century ago, signs that new forces of modernity were affecting men's sense of who and what they were. When the Prussian-born Eugene Sandow, an international vaudeville star and body builder, toured the United States in the 1890s, Florenz Ziegfield cannily presented him as the "Strongest Man in the World," the "Perfect Man," and audiences swooned over his nearly unclothed body; he clearly wanted them to appreciate Sandow as representing both an ancient ideal of manhood and a modern commodity extolling self-development and self-fulfillment. Then, with the advent of Edgar Rice Burroughs's fictional hero Tarzan in 1912, the fantasy of a perfect white Anglo-Saxon male was taken even further, escaping the confines of civilization but reasserting its values, literally beating his chest and bellowing his triumph to the world. The great escape artist Harry Houdini (born Ehrich Weiss) took the dream of escape still further, with his spectacular performances that showed his own body triumphing over every kind of threat to masculine integritybondage, imprisonment, insanity, and death.

Kasson's liberally illustrated and persuasively argued study analyzes the thematic links among these figures, and places them in their rich historical and cultural context. The pervasive concern with the white male bodywith exhibiting it, and with the perils to itreached a climax in the First World War, he suggests, and continues with us today.

"Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man, like much of Kasson's earlier work, makes an important scholarly contribution and has great potential for classroom use. He engages an important subject about which most readers know something and peels back layer upon layer of meaning to reveal a complex social world of individuals, dreams, anxieties, and action . . . The result is a fine cultural history of masculinity . . . by examining turn-of-the-century masculine ideals and images and by reflecting on the ways social and cultural change shaped men's attitudes toward their bodies, fired their imaginations, and inflamed deep-seated anxieties. Kasson's study is not merely about the ideal of manly strength, survival, and resistanceit is about the multivalent performance of identity."Susan Curtis, Purdue University, Journal of American History

"Kasson examines turn-of-the-century masculine ideals and images and reflects on the ways social and cultural change shaped men's attitudes toward their bodies, fired their imaginations, and inflamed deep-seated anxieties. The result is a fine cultural history of masculinity . . . Kasson offers careful readings . . . in which the performance of masculinity relied on the machinery of mass/popular culture even as it critiqued the prevailing ethos of mass society. Images in the text, taken from magazines, billboards, promotional stills, and newspapers, testify to the role played by vaudeville, pulp fiction, mass-circulation periodicals, and film in projecting those male bodies and exploits onto the imagination of spectators. Kasson's study is not merely about the ideal of manly strength, survival and resistanceit is about the multivalent performance of identity. Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man, like much of Kasson's work, makes an important scholarly contribution and has great potential for classroom use. He engages an important subject about which most readers know something and peels back layer upon layer of meaning to reveal a complex social world of individuals, dreams, anxieties, and action."Susan Curtis, Purdue University, Journal of American History

"John Kasson's brilliant book has wise and witty things to say that wein our age of health clubs and body-building machinesneed to understand about the social meanings of strength and the powerful body. In learning about Houdini and Tarzan we learn much about our own world. This is a page-turner of a book, with a surprise worth knowing on every beautifully written page."Linda K. Kerber, University of Iowa

"Engaging . . . Kasson draws a fascinating picture of the response of an exuberant popular culture at the dawn of the 'American Century.' In addition to the title characters, he introduces a colorful collection of minor figures, including a 'real life' Tarzan and a female impersonator whose magazine instructed women on how to attract men."Clyde Frazier, The News and Observer

"Offers unique comments on manliness in modern society and on American culture in general. At a time when much of gender studies centers on femininity, this book provides a broader picture of how and why we are the nation in which bodiesmale and femaleare both models and icons."Marshall Fishwick, The Roanoke Times

"Kasson explores how audiences in the late 1800s and early 1900s were thrilled and titillated by the performances of Eugen Sandow, known as the 'Perfect Man'; Harry Houdini, the daredevil escape artist and magician; and Edgar Rice Burroughs' creation Tarzan. All three male images effectively used the double-edged sword of sexuality between repression and exhibitionism that existed in society to avoid censors and entice men and women to the theater. Kasson theorizes it was this modernized concept of the white male, someone of European descent, the right class, amazing strength and ingenuity, and a touch exotic, that became a commodity that was displayed and sold to the public. He suggests this modernized ideal was formed and flourished in this period because the white male wanted to re-exert his superiority. It also afforded women and some men the opportunity to view and fanticize about these scantily clad men exhibiting muscles, escaping bondage, and rescuing people in a way society deemed acceptable. Examples of these types of male idols still exist today in the personas of James Bond, the spy in Mission: Impossible, the Terminator, and other films. This excellent, thought-provoking book explains how it all started."Eileen Hardy, Booklist (starred review)

"Here is an unusual and thought-provoking look at the evolving concept of manhood from the late 19th century through the World War I era, when social, technological, business, and urban changes reshaped many traditional perceptions. Kasson presents a well-researched study focusing upon three figures who underscored the male im