“Will immediately become the definitive treatment of its topic, a subject that no other work has had the ambition to tackle in such detail and range.”—John Ibson, California State University, author of Picturing Men: A Century of Male Relationships in Everyday American Photography
 

“Moving from the silent era to the post-Schwarzenegger age, David Chapman and John Fair’s book entertains and informs in equal measure. Few works will be able to touch the breadth and nuance of this work. Nor will they match the authors’ keen eye for detail and flair. In seeking to integrate, and highlight, the importance of muscles in film, Chapman and Fair sweep across national and transnational histories to explore the ongoing human fascination with athleticism. Be they Italians, Germans, Americans or everyone in between, movie goers have long looked to the chiselled body for motivation, information and solace. In exploring this interest, Chapman and Fair have produced a book that will likely serve as the reference work for years to come.”—Conor Heffernan, University of Texas at Austin, Trustee of the British Society of Sport History
 

“From Sandow to Schwarzenegger and beyond, Chapman and Fair’s survey is the definitive study of the built physique in film. Ably balancing the fan’s perspective with meticulous research, Muscles in the Movies is an essential contribution to our understanding of bodies in cinema.”—Tolga Ozyurtcu, University of Texas at Austin, Historian of Lifestyle Sport