John Kasson talks about his book, Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man: The White Male Body and the Challenge of Modernity in America, with Mike O’Malley
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Conversations with Historians:
John Kasson: Tarzan
Poster for the silent film Tarzan of the Apes (1918)
Edgar Rice Burroughs
What was Edgar Rice Burroughs doing before he began the Tarzan series?
What did he do at System magazine, and how did he feel about it?
Though other people have noted Burroughs time at System, you spent considerable time looking at the magazine's contents. What did you find?
Your book stresses what other historians have noted—the “corporatization” of American life. How did this effect Burroughs?
It’s just impossible to avoid noticing the
central role racism played in Burrough's vision of “escape.” The alternative to corporate culture seems to be a kind of racial triumphalism. Did Burroughs ever address this element of his work explicitly?
Your book describes the evolution of the modern male body, or at least its depiction. Is there now a “post-modern” male body?
Left: Burroughs with Elmo Lincoln, the first movie Tarzan, on the set of Tarzan of the Apes, (1918)
What did he do at 
Your book stresses what other historians have noted—the “corporatization” of American life. How did this effect Burroughs? 
Your book describes the evolution of the modern male body, or at least its depiction. Is there now a “post-modern” male body?