What is massage? -- Shamanic and priestly origins of massage -- Massage in the ancient world : Babylonia, Egypt, China, and India -- Massage in the ancient world : Greece and Rome -- Keeping the faith : massage from the fall of the Roman Empire to the nineteenth century -- Nineteenth-century massage in gymnastics and movement therapy -- First steps to credibility : massage in nineteenth-century medicine -- Massage in nineteenth-century alternative therapeutic and restorative cultures -- Massage tools and mediums -- The evolution of massage technique -- The golden age of massage.