The three-volume History of the Body, written by French, British and American anthropologists and cultural historians, takes a comprehensive look at bodily practices and body representation in Europe, from the Renaissance to the present. The third volume covers the 20th century, in which the human body has become perhaps the main object, undergoing unprecedented suffering and at the same time enjoying unprecedented attention. Parallel processes are taking place: repression and at the same time acceptance of bodily anomalies, the transformation of the individual, unique body into an insignificant element of the mass, into food for war and political repression - and along with this, sexual and creative emancipation, the “professionalization” of the sports and cinematic body, creating it cult. This volume explores how the 20th century radically changed the perception of the body.Contents:IntroductionJean-Jacques Courtin 5PART ONE. KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE ORGANISMChapter I. The body from a medical point of view (Anne Marie Moulin) 11Chapter II. The invention and understanding of the genetic body (Frederick Keck and Paul Rabinow) 63PART TWO. DESIRE AND NORMSChapter I. The body as a sexual object (Anne-Marie Sohn) 83Chapter II. The ordinary body (Pascal Ory) 119Chapter III. Train the body (Georges Vigarello) 149 PART THREE. DEVIATIONS AND DANGERSChapter I. Abnormal body. History and cultural anthropology of deformities (Jean-Jacques Courtin) 185Chapter II. To identify. Traces, signs, suspicions (Jean-Jacques Courtin and Georges Vigarello) 243 PART FOUR. SUFFERING AND VIOLENCEChapter I. Slaughterhouses. The Body and War (Stéphane Audouin-Rouzeau) 259Chapter II. Destruction. The Body and the Camps (Annette Becker) 291PART FIVE. VIEW AND SPECTSChapter I. Stadiums. Sports spectacle: from stands to screens (Georges Vigarello) 311Chapter II. Screens. The Body in Cinema (Antoine de Becque) 334Chapter III. Scenes. The Dancing Body: Laboratory of Perception (Anne Suquet) 351Chapter IV. Images. The Body and the Visual Arts (Yves Michaud) 371CONCLUSION. The soul that became the body, and life without life 387Notes 389About the authors 441Index of names 446