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Brothers of Iron: Building the Weider Empire ReviewThis engaging memoir deserves a wide audience. Anyone interested in bodybuilding, weightlifting, sports medicine, the history of the fitness movement, magazine publishing, marketing, motivational thought, Napoleonic history, or diplomacy will find this book worth reading. Schwarzenegger fans may learn a few new things about the Governator, who was Joe "Master Blaster" Weider's star protégé in the early 70's and features prominently in the narrative.
Since the Weiders pretty much created modern bodybuilding (bodybuilding = improving the fitness, shape and size of your body through exercise), this is a must-read for anyone who is seriously interested in that subject. How the Wieders differentiated bodybuilding from weightlifting, and the running battle that weightlifting impresario Bob Hoffman fought against Joe Weider for decades, is one of the major narrative threads. Another is Ben Weider's quest to establish the International Federation of Bodybuilders (IFBB) worldwide, and have bodybuilding recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Building the Weider enterprise -- publishing, exercise equipment, food supplements and so forth is another thread that provides an interesting case study in entrepreneurship, with all the good luck, bad luck, shrewd decisions and blunders you would expect in a sixty year career.
On the motivational side, this memoir reminded me of a Somerset Maugham short story where a verger (lay minister) loses his job because of illiteracy, becomes a tobacco store magnate, and is asked by an astounded banker where he would be if he could read and write. He answers "I'd be verger of St. Peter's, Neville Square." Well, apparently Ben Weider would have been an RCMP officer (he was rejected because he was Jewish), and Joe Weider would have been a tradesman (he lacked the two years of high school the trade school required). These are honorable occupations, but the point is that for both men, as for Maugham's verger, what the world considered handicaps steered them to great success. I say "steered" because millions of people in similar situations do not achieve extraordinary things. The additional factor that propelled the Weiders was tireless dedication to goals they firmly believed would ultimately be achieved. However, I disagree with Joe Weider's taking his success as proof that individuals shape historical forces and not vice versa. If Joe had believed that unicycling was the key to worldwide health and fitness, I think things would have turned out quite differently, regardless of his dedication. Of course I could be wrong, and we might all be riding unicycles instead of working out.
Reading how Ben Weider managed to build the IFBB sports federation, established bodybuilding in communist countries, and eventually won provisional recognition for bodybuilding as an Olympic sport (it took 40 years) will give you better pointers on practical diplomacy then you will get by reading Sumner Welles and maybe even George Keenan. I normally don't think of bodybuilders as diplomats. I also don't think of them as historians, so I was surprised to learn that Ben Weider was largely responsible for proving the theory that Napoleon was poisoned -- this is now generally accepted as fact -- and was awarded the French Legion of Honor as a result.
Brothers of Iron: Building the Weider Empire OverviewIn the depths of the Great Depression a scrawny, dirt-poor Jewish kid with a seventh-grade education picked up a barbell and got hooked on weight training. Building his muscles gave him confidence and hope for a better life. He pledged to make the great, transforming power of strength training available to everyone and to give bodybuilding all the glory it deserved. The kid, Joe Weider, enlisted his younger brother Ben in his quest, and together the Weider brothers accomplished things much bigger than JoeÂ's boyhood dreams. The little muscle magazine Joe started, working at his familyÂ's dining room table, grew into a publishing empire. From a backyard barbell business, Joe and Ben built equipment and food supplement companies each as big as Weider Publishing. And they transformed bodybuilding into a hugely successful sport, organized under one of the largest and best-run athletic federations in the world. The Weider brothers are heroes to bodybuilders and fans all over the world. TheyÂ're heroes because theyÂ're revolutionaries. The Weiders changed the way people think about exercise, health, and what makes a body beautiful. They changed the world and Brothers of Iron tells their fascinating story.
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