Muscletown USA: Bob Hoffman and the Manly Culture of York Barbell | 
 enlarge | Author: John D. Fair
Publisher: Penn State Press
Category: Book
List Price: $33.95
Buy New: $22.41
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Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 467059
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 436
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 0271018550
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.76887641092
EAN: 9780271018553
ASIN: 0271018550
Publication Date: June 16, 2008
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Condition: Book is NEW! Mailed in bubble mailer for protection!
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Product Description
From the 1930s to the 1980s, the capital of weightlifting in America was York, Pennsylvania, the home of the York Barbell Company. Bob Hoffman, the founder of York Barbell, propagated an ideology of success for Americans seeking physical improvement. Often called the "Father of World Weightlifting," Hoffman was a pioneer in marketing barbells and health foods. He popularized weight training and inaugurated a golden age of American weightlifting. Muscletown USA--part biography, part business history, and part sports history--chronicles how Hoffman made York the mecca of manly culture for millions of followers worldwide.Hoffman created his so-called muscle empire out of an oil-burner business that he started in the early 1920s. Within a decade, his passion for sport exceeded his need to produce oil burners and by the outset of the Depression he began manufacturing barbells at the factory. He soon discovered a willing public of aspiring weightlifters like himself who would buy not only barbells but also health and fitness products. Hoffman soon recruited a remarkable group of athletes, whom he tagged his "York Gang." He gave these men jobs in the factory, where they trained for national and international meets. Gradually, Hoffman emerged as one of the most prominent muscle peddlers in America, using his fame and fortune to promote competitive weightlifting, bodybuilding, and powerlifting. Muscletown USA reveals other innovations in which Hoffman played a major role, including weight training for athletes, health foods, bottled spring water, isometrics, and women's weightlifting. Even anabolic steroids, first used by weightlifters in the early 1960s, were a direct outgrowth of the fitness culture spawned by Hoffman.Meticulously researched and engagingly written, Fair's book will appeal to a wide range of readers, including anyone fascinated by American sports history and the iron game. John D. Fair is professor of history and chair of the Department of History and Geography at Georgia College & State University in Milledgville, Georgia. He is the author of two books on modern British history. He has competed in more than fifty Olympic and powerlifting meets, coached several teams, taught weight-training classes, staged meets, been a national referee, served on the national weightlifting committee, and even judged a Mr. America contest.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN............ July 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I grew up in a household in which I was not welcome. Two individuals made my life bearable: Mickey Mantle and Bob Hoffman! From the late fifties through the late sixties I was a welterweight lifter out of Oakland, California. I enjoyed a small measure of success. I can recall being at the newsstand each month on the appropriate day to search the racks for the latest Strength and Health. I would read those magazines from cover to cover, every word, and would do so several times before the next issue was released. And throughout those years I certainly bought more than my share of York equipment.
Someone once said something to the effect that if you have an idol look a little closer and you will see that you are selling yourself short. The author, Mr. Fair, looks a little closer, but not unfairly, in my opinion. Growing up with Strength and Health I was not aware of many of Mr. Hoffman's shortcomings. And now that I know them, nothing has changed. For Hoffman is still number one in my book. In my view the character flaws only serve to humanize him. Something wrong with that? How many of you who've submitted critical reviews regarding Hoffman have lived steller lives? How many of you have built sucessful businesses from the ground up? And most importantly, How many of you have MADE A DIFFERENCE in the lives of so many? The silence is deafening. Regarding the book, I find it well written. Also of great interest to me are the photos of the luminaries of that era. I am thankful that this book was written, and I am pleased to have read it. Mr. Fair, how about bios on some of the high profile people of the "weight game", Grimek, Reeves, etc?
Well researched and a good read. April 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Whether you agree or disagree with the "tone" taken towards Bob Hoffman in this book - whether he was a devil or a saint (though the truth is, no doubt, somewhere in between) - you'll have to agree that a lot of time, work and research went into writing this book. Dr. Fair interviewed a lot of history's most prominent figures in the Iron Game in compiling the material here.
Everyone with personal experience will have their own opinion of Bob Hoffman as a man. I don't really think that's the point here. The point is that Fair did a monumental task in putting this book together. There's a lot of interesting and little-known history contained it. I don't think anyone interested in the history of the Iron Game should be without it.
Muscletown USA March 11, 2008
This is a great book. It gives great insight,into the lives of the old York barbell crew and Bob Hoffman.It also goes into the lives of many of the old Weightlifters such as John Davis,the first African-American,Olympic Champion,and at one time the worlds strongest man! You will also see that Bob Hoffman,was not the best cat in the world to go drinking with! Liked to fight! It does tell of the workings of the champs of old and would be of value to anyone interested in the world of pre-steroid,and post-steroid weightlifting.
 so so January 29, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
the book has everything you would want to know about hoffman and other famous bodybuilders, strongmen but the way the book was written too much information, was not entertaining.
Hoffman did it all for his own glory! October 25, 2005
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
The bottom line is t hat Bobby Hoffman did all this for his own good and it is really irrelevent as what the iron game was back in the 40's was nothing compared to what the sport is today. What Hoffman had control of with a little carnival act, a subculture that was widely ridiculed by the general public and still would be if the sport where left in the hands of Hoffman and the AAU.
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