Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa

This is a historian's look at Anorexia and it's rise since victorian times. Interesting in how it looks at body image and how it's changed over the years combined with how the attitude of many of the people involved has changed.
Disturbing in many ways it's an indictment in how divorced from reality our perception of fat and body image has become.

This book was relatively easy to read; however, it did have a few slow points. If there was more of an environment/era overview focus rather than a few specific era case studies, I think the book would have flowed better and the slow points would have been nearly eliminated.

After reading this book, I am left with the perception - perhaps gross misinterpretation - that anorexia, in all its forms, is nothing more than a means for attention. Saintly attention; romantic attention; jealous attention; political attention - attention all the same. (Respectfully, this perception is not meant to demean or lessen the tribulations of anorexia.)

excellent history on anorexia and the attition starving got through the ages.