| Description |
1 online resource (xi, 365 pages) : illustrations |
| Contents |
Introduction : Encounters with rock and ice between science and sublimity -- 1. The vicissitudes of Humboldt's mountain moments -- 2. The drama of ascent -- 3. The Alps : a brief history -- 4. Horace-Bénédict de Saussure's quest for Mont Blanc -- 5. Icecapades : James David Forbes and Louis Agassiz -- 6. The selling of the Alps and the beginning of the "golden age" : Albert Smith and Alfred Wills -- 7. Poetic science and competitive vigor : John Tyndall and Edward Whymper -- 8. The making of modern climbing : Leslie Stephen -- 9. Transcontinental shifts : Clarence King's representation of the American West -- 10. The solitary mountaineer : John Muir -- Epilogue |
| Summary |
European forays to mountain summits began in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with the search for plants and minerals and the study of geology and glaciers. Yet scientists were soon captivated by the enterprise of climbing itself, enthralled with the views and the prospect of "conquering" alpine summits. Mountains inspired Romantic idealizations of nature and became a refuge from the industrializing West. As increased leisure time and advances in infrastructure and equipment opened up once formidable mountain regions to those seeking adventure and sport, a new model of masculinity emerged that was fraught with tensions. This book examines how written and artistic depictions of nineteenth-century exploration and mountaineering in the Andes, the Alps, and the Sierra Nevada shaped cultural understandings of nature and wilderness |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Mountaineering -- History -- 19th century
|
|
SPORTS & RECREATION / Mountaineering.
|
|
Mountaineering
|
| Genre/Form |
History
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9780300252828 |
|
030025282X |
|
