Skiing into Modernity A Cultural and Environmental History [Hardcover]

Skiing into Modernityis the story of how skiing moved from Europes 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 sports historical appeal for individuals who sought to escape city strictures while achieving mastery of mountain environments through technology and speedtwo central features distinguishing early twentieth-century cultures.

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

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

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

“Skiing into Modernityoffers historians a brand-new vision of the Alps and a remarkably fresh and nuanced history of skiing. But, perhaps most important, it reveals just how much our physical landscapes and leisure practices have emerged in concert with changing views about how individuals should relate to nature.”—Annie Gilbert Coleman, author ofSki Style: Sport and Culture in the Rockies

“An engagingly wrlã'