Skiing into Modernity: A Cultural and Environmental History

by Andrew Denning

Overview

Skiing into Modernity is the story of how skiing moved from Europe’s Scandinavian periphery to the mountains of central Europe, where it came to define the modern Alps and set the standard for skiing across the world.

Denning offers a fresh, sophisticated, and engaging cultural and environmental history of skiing that alters our understanding of the sport and reveals how leisure practices evolve in unison with our changing relationship to nature. Denning probes the modernist self-definition of Alpine skiers and the sport’s historical appeal for individuals who sought to escape city strictures while achieving mastery of mountain environments through technology and speed—two central features distinguishing early twentieth-century cultures.

Skiing into Modernity surpasses existing literature on the history of skiing to explore intersections between work, tourism, leisure, development, environmental destruction, urbanism, and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520284272
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	11/26/2014
Series:	Sport in World History , #3
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Andrew Denning is a postdoctoral fellow in history at the University of British Columbia.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction

PART ONE. TAKING ROOT
1 An Uphill Climb
2 A Civilizing Force
3 A Family Feud

PART TWO. MODERN MOBILITIES
4 Joy in Movement
5 Ecstasy in Speed
6 Modernity in Sport

PART THREE. LANDSCAPES OF LEISURE
7 Consuming Alpine Skiing
8 The Pursuit of White Gold

Epilogue
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Andrew Dennin offers an exceptionlly thoughtful analysis of how skiing took hold in European mountains and minds, also providing much food for thought for historians of skiing, leisure, and environment in North America."

Pacific Historical Review

"[An] intellectual study."

CHOICE - S. A. Riess

"Denning skillfully combines sport, cultural, and environmental histories... Skiing into Modernity is an excellent book."

Canadian Journal of History

"A great case study . . . Skiing into Modernity is a great read."

Consumption Markets and Culture - Gulnur Tumbat

"Denning offers a thoughtful and innovative study that should prove useful to scholars of environment, leisure, Europe, and skiing."

H-Net

"A great case study . . . Skiing into Modernity is a great read."

Consumption Markets and Culture