Americans today can’t open their inboxes or walk a few blocks without encountering some exhortation to exercise. Far from any sweaty locker room, fitness has become a figurative backdrop for much of modern life: an intrepid reporter breaks a story by flying cross-country to do Pilates alongside an inscrutable source; a CEO confides that her hiring secret is observing applicants in a post-interview spin session; a Harlem yoga class furnishes proof positive to community organizers that gentrification has run amok; high-fashion designers launch athleisure collections; FitBit data solves a murder. Given the United States is hardly a “fit nation” – only 20 percent of Americans work out consistently and our "obesity epidemic" regularly makes international headlines – the real questions are how did this happen? And is the creation of the "fit nation" a sign of progress? The answers lie in history. In the past 75 years, “the gym” has evolved from a strange subculture to a social imperative. An expanding American exercise culture has shaped our ideas about health, beauty, and consumerism, yet fitness has also become a stark socioeconomic marker dividing haves and have-nots as a private industry booms and public options wane. This course explores the evolution of the fit nation -- at once inclusive but inescapable, pervasive but elusive -- and considers the path forward.**Students must register for both the lecture and discussion section of this course.** [This ULEC is in category 3, Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Arts and Humanities.]