ABSTRACT
This last quote applies admirably to this chapter on the history of obesity ‘‘as an analytical discipline. . . and the accumulation of a body of objective knowledge.’’ In this chapter I will explore the historical framework in which this accumulation of a body of objective knowledge about obesity has occurred. I am not a historian and thus lack the perspective of someone trained in that
field. I am rather a practicing scientist who has tried to understand the processes of experimental science to apply them to improving my own science. In an earlier review (3) I covered a number of concepts in the history of obesity. Other historical milestones for obesity have been examined in the selections I wrote for the Classics in Obesity section of the journal Obesity Research (433). This book will build on these earlier papers and attempt to place these contributions to the field of obesity into a broader historical context (34,35).
