Book

The bicycle : towards a global history

Smethurst, Paul

Overview

\"The modern bicycle as we know it today was developed in England in the 1880s. A decade later, cycling was already a popular spectator sport and a recreational fashion across western society. Women's rights, class mobility and a modern spirit of individualism helped fuel this bicycle boom. In China, on the other hand, the bicycle's ubiquity reflected state-controlled social uniformity. Briefly, it became a symbol of resistance in Tiananmen Square in the 1980s, but crushed by tanks it later turned into a downward marker of class with millions scrapped. In the 21st century, the bicycle is enjoying a global resurgence. It is favoured as a sustainable form of transport, while also reinventing itself as a chic and sportive fashion object, and a generic protest vehicle. With contradictory strands like these, the bicycle's cultural history is a rich subject for cross-cultural study. Beginning with the technical history of the bicycle's invention, and the socio-economic factors that precipitated it, the main focus of this book is the ever-changing cultural significance of the bicycle as an object, and of bicycling as a shifting, but ever popular social practice around the world. \"-- Provided by publisher.

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Subject: Bicycles History. / Bicycles Social aspects. / Cycling Social aspects. / Cycling Cross-cultural studies. / HISTORY / General. / HISTORY / World. / HISTORY / Social History.
• ISBN: 9781137499493, 1137499494

Item info:

1 item available

1 item total in all locations

Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
TL410.S635 2015	1	BOOK	AUTOSTORE