Elizabeth A. Williams is professor emerita of history at Oklahoma State University.

"An exceptionally well-researched and detailed examination of appetite as an object of scientific and medical inquiry. Despite its strict focus on disciplinary debates, the gendered dimensions of appetite, particularly appetite disorders, is afforded attention throughout the book. Williams is careful to comment on the oppressive aspects of health as defined by scientific medicine and the potentially stigmatizing effects for those who deviate from normative frameworks. Graduate students and scholars interested in medicalization and healthism would benefit from reading this work. Fat studies scholars may also find this book of interest as Williams discusses the shifting conceptualization of 'obesity' and the drive toward thinness as a marker of health and well-being."

• List of IllustrationsIntroductionPart One Anxieties of Appetite: Created Needs in the Enlightenment, 1750–1800Introduction to Part One1 Why We Eat: The Ancient Legacy2 “False or Defective” Appetite in the Medical Enlightenment3 Human and Animal Appetite in Natural History and PhysiologyPart Two The Elusiveness of Appetite: Laboratory and Clinic, 1800–1850Introduction to Part Two4 Perils and Pleasures of Appetite at 1800: Xavier Bichat and Erasmus Darwin5 The Physiology of Appetite to 18506 Extremes and Perplexities of Appetite in Clinical MedicinePart Three Intelligent or “Blind and Unconscious”? Appetite, 1850–1900Introduction to Part Three7 The Drive to Eat in Nutritional Physiology8 The Psychology of Ingestion: Appetite in Physiological and Animal Psychology9 Peripheral or Central? Disordered Eating in Clinical MedicinePart Four Appetite as a Scientific Object, 1900–1950Introduction to Part Four10 Psyche, Nerves, and Hormones in the Physiology of Ingestion11 Appetite and the Nature-Nurture Divide: Eating Behavior in Psychology and Ethology12 Somatic, Psychic, Psychosomatic: The Medicine of Troubled AppetiteEpilogue: Appetite after 1950AcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndex

Elizabeth A. Williams is professor emerita of history at Oklahoma State University.

"An exceptionally well-researched and detailed examination of appetite as an object of scientific and medical inquiry. Despite its strict focus on disciplinary debates, the gendered dimensions of appetite, particularly appetite disorders, is afforded attention throughout the book. Williams is careful to comment on the oppressive aspects of health as defined by scientific medicine and the potentially stigmatizing effects for those who deviate from normative frameworks. Graduate students and scholars interested in medicalization and healthism would benefit from reading this work. Fat studies scholars may also find this book of interest as Williams discusses the shifting conceptualization of 'obesity' and the drive toward thinness as a marker of health and well-being."

• List of IllustrationsIntroductionPart One Anxieties of Appetite: Created Needs in the Enlightenment, 1750–1800Introduction to Part One1 Why We Eat: The Ancient Legacy2 “False or Defective” Appetite in the Medical Enlightenment3 Human and Animal Appetite in Natural History and PhysiologyPart Two The Elusiveness of Appetite: Laboratory and Clinic, 1800–1850Introduction to Part Two4 Perils and Pleasures of Appetite at 1800: Xavier Bichat and Erasmus Darwin5 The Physiology of Appetite to 18506 Extremes and Perplexities of Appetite in Clinical MedicinePart Three Intelligent or “Blind and Unconscious”? Appetite, 1850–1900Introduction to Part Three7 The Drive to Eat in Nutritional Physiology8 The Psychology of Ingestion: Appetite in Physiological and Animal Psychology9 Peripheral or Central? Disordered Eating in Clinical MedicinePart Four Appetite as a Scientific Object, 1900–1950Introduction to Part Four10 Psyche, Nerves, and Hormones in the Physiology of Ingestion11 Appetite and the Nature-Nurture Divide: Eating Behavior in Psychology and Ethology12 Somatic, Psychic, Psychosomatic: The Medicine of Troubled AppetiteEpilogue: Appetite after 1950AcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndex

Elizabeth A. Williams is professor emerita of history at Oklahoma State University.

"An exceptionally well-researched and detailed examination of appetite as an object of scientific and medical inquiry. Despite its strict focus on disciplinary debates, the gendered dimensions of appetite, particularly appetite disorders, is afforded attention throughout the book. Williams is careful to comment on the oppressive aspects of health as defined by scientific medicine and the potentially stigmatizing effects for those who deviate from normative frameworks. Graduate students and scholars interested in medicalization and healthism would benefit from reading this work. Fat studies scholars may also find this book of interest as Williams discusses the shifting conceptualization of 'obesity' and the drive toward thinness as a marker of health and well-being."

• List of IllustrationsIntroductionPart One Anxieties of Appetite: Created Needs in the Enlightenment, 1750–1800Introduction to Part One1 Why We Eat: The Ancient Legacy2 “False or Defective” Appetite in the Medical Enlightenment3 Human and Animal Appetite in Natural History and PhysiologyPart Two The Elusiveness of Appetite: Laboratory and Clinic, 1800–1850Introduction to Part Two4 Perils and Pleasures of Appetite at 1800: Xavier Bichat and Erasmus Darwin5 The Physiology of Appetite to 18506 Extremes and Perplexities of Appetite in Clinical MedicinePart Three Intelligent or “Blind and Unconscious”? Appetite, 1850–1900Introduction to Part Three7 The Drive to Eat in Nutritional Physiology8 The Psychology of Ingestion: Appetite in Physiological and Animal Psychology9 Peripheral or Central? Disordered Eating in Clinical MedicinePart Four Appetite as a Scientific Object, 1900–1950Introduction to Part Four10 Psyche, Nerves, and Hormones in the Physiology of Ingestion11 Appetite and the Nature-Nurture Divide: Eating Behavior in Psychology and Ethology12 Somatic, Psychic, Psychosomatic: The Medicine of Troubled AppetiteEpilogue: Appetite after 1950AcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndex