"American Hunks depicts the muscular American male as documented in popular culture from 1860 to 1970. The book, divided into specific historic eras, includes such personalities as bodybuilder Charles Atlas, pioneer weightlifter Eugen Sandow, and movie stars like Steve "Hercules" Reeves and Johnny Weissmuller, and publications such as the 1920s-era magazine Physical Culture and the 1950s-era comic book Mr. Muscles. It also touches on the use of masculine, homoerotic imagery to sell political and military might, and how companies have used buff, near-naked men to sell products from laundry detergent to sacks of flour since the 1920s."--Jacket.