This exploration of an unexpected aspect of New Zealand social history examines the human body at leisure in the years 1900-1960. This book studies bodybuilding, especially the famous strongman Eugen Sandow; growing ideas about fitness, health, and exercise; the rise of beauty contests; the culture of the beach and the pool; nudism; and children's play and the appearance of playgrounds. The central aim is to explore how bodies-men's, women's and children's-were shaped and displayed through various leisure pursuits in 20th-century New Zealand.

Caroline Daley is a senior lecturer in history at the University of Auckland. She is the coeditor of the New Zealand Journal of History and a past editor of the Women's Studies Journal. She is the author of Girls and Women, Men and Boys, Suffrage and Beyond, and The Gendered Kiwi.