What Nudism Exposes

What Nudism Exposes offers a convincing new perspective on postwar Canada by revealing how nudist clubs navigated the social and cultural changes of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s.

Mary-Ann Shantz is a historian, researcher, and project manager who lives in Edmonton, Alberta. She is a contributor to Contesting Bodies and Nation in Canadian History and has been published in Histoire sociale/Social History and the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth.

... [a] richly researched and insightful book...

Shannon Wall, University of Winnipeg:

"Shantz goes a long way in providing a multi-faceted history not only of recreational nudity in mid-century Canada, but also of the possibilities and limitations of non-conformity in the postwar period."

Margaret O'Riordan-Ross, Queen's University:

"The book makes visible the inner contradictions of [the Nudist] movement, which Shantz explores particularly in relation to gender norms and the sexualization of women’s bodies as well as nudists’ relationships with nature and the environment."

Brian Hoffman:

"What Nudism Exposes… is "revealing" and incredibly valuable to historians of postwar North American society and culture."

Jane Nichols, University of Waterloo:

"Shantz directly contributes to the scholarship on the history of the body."

Caroline Daley, author of Leisure and Pleasure: Reshaping and Revealing the New Zealand Body 1900–1960:

By studying nudism, Mary-Ann Shantz offers a novel lens on significant concerns about Canadian society after the Second World War.

Esyllt W. Jones, professor, History and Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba:

What Nudism Exposes deftly explores the fascinating but little-known history of nudism, woven into the larger social story of postwar Canada. No other book focuses on issues of gender relations and sexuality in this context.