Wanderlust: A History of Walking

Wanderlust: A History of Walking
by Rebecca Solnit

Wanderlust: A History of Walking
List Price: $16.00
Our Price: $6.50
You Save: $9.50 (59%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.27 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Rebecca Solnit
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2001-06-01
ISBN: 0140286012
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Accessories:

Book Reviews of Wanderlust: A History of Walking

Book Review: wonderful perspective
Summary: 5 Stars

This is a new way to look at cultural history and the way we live our lives that is especially relevant to our present day car culture. Wordsworth is estimated to have walked 170,000 miles in his life and sparked a cottage industry of walking tours in England and Europe. Solnit makes me realize that new cultural turns and socially revolutionary ways of living and thinking seem to coincide with new approaches to walking the land.

Summary of Wanderlust: A History of Walking

Drawing together many histories-of anatomical evolution and city design, of treadmills and labyrinths, of walking clubs and sexual mores-Rebecca Solnit creates a fascinating portrait of the range of possibilities presented by walking. Arguing that the history of walking includes walking for pleasure as well as for political, aesthetic, and social meaning, Solnit focuses on the walkers whose everyday and extreme acts have shaped our culture, from philosophers to poets to mountaineers. She profiles some of the most significant walkers in history and fiction-from Wordsworth to Gary Snyder, from Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennet to Andre Breton's Nadja-finding a profound relationship between walking and thinking and walking and culture. Solnit argues for the necessity of preserving the time and space in which to walk in our ever more car-dependent and accelerated world.
The ability to walk on two legs over long distances distinguishes Homo sapiens from other primates, and indeed from every other species on earth. That ability has also yielded some of the best creative work of our species: the lyrical ballads of the English romantic poets, composed on long walks over hill and dale; the speculations of the peripatetic philosophers; the meditations of footloose Chinese and Japanese poets; the exhortations of Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman.

Rebecca Solnit, a thoughtful writer and spirited walker, takes her readers on a leisurely journey through the prehistory, history, and natural history of bipedal motion. Walking, she observes, affords its practitioners an immediate reward--the ability to observe the world at a relaxed gait, one that allows us to take in sights, sounds, and smells that we might otherwise pass by. It provides a vehicle for much-needed solitude and private thought. For the health-minded, walking affords a low-impact and usually pleasant way of shedding a few pounds and stretching a few muscles. It is an essential part of the human adventure--and one that has, until now, been too little documented.

Written in a time when landscapes and cities alike are designed to accommodate automobiles and not pedestrians, Solnit's extraordinary book is an enticement to lace up shoes and set out on an aimless, meditative stroll of one's own. --Gregory McNamee

History Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Alternatives to the auto industrial complex.
Travel the World by Train: Africa ImageTravel the World by Train: Africa
Release date: 1999-05-18; DVD
Best price: $7.98
Price in other shops: $19.98
The Bioneers: Declarations of Interdependence ImageThe Bioneers: Declarations of Interdependence
by Ken Ausubel
Chelsea Green; Published: 2001-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.00
Price in other shops: $25.00
Nature-Friendly Communities: Habitat Protection And Land Use Planning ImageNature-Friendly Communities: Habitat Protection And Land Use Planning
by Chris Duerksen, Cara Snyder
Island Press; Published: 2005-05-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.00
Price in other shops: $35.00
Nature-Friendly Ordinances ImageNature-Friendly Ordinances
by James M. McElfish
Environmental Law Institute; Published: 2004-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $34.97
Price in other shops: $39.95
Corridor Ecology: The Science and Practice of Linking Landscapes for Biodiversity Conservation ImageCorridor Ecology: The Science and Practice of Linking Landscapes for Biodiversity Conservation
by Jodi Hilty, William Z. Lidicker Jr., Adina Merenlender
Island Press; Published: 2006-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.97
Price in other shops: $30.00
Road Ecology: Science And Solutions ImageRoad Ecology: Science And Solutions
by Richard T.T. Forman, Daniel Sperling, John A. Bissonette, Anthony P. Clevenger, Carol D. Cutshall, Virginia H. Dale, Lenore Fahrig, Robert L. France, Charles R. Goldman, Kevin Heanue, Julia Jones, Frederick Swanson, Thomas Turrentine, Thomas C. Winter
Island Press; Published: 2002-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $34.70
Price in other shops: $40.00
Wildlife and Roads ImageWildlife and Roads
World Scientific Publishing Company; Published: 2002-07-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $33.00
The 11th Hour ImageThe 11th Hour
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-04-08; DVD
Best price: $3.30
Price in other shops: $4.99
Community By Design: New Urbanism for Suburbs and Small Communities ImageCommunity By Design: New Urbanism for Suburbs and Small Communities
by Kenneth B. Hall, Gerald A. Porterfield
McGraw-Hill Professional; Published: 2001-03-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $35.64
Price in other shops: $49.95
The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream ImageThe End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream
MICROCINEMA INC; Release date: 2007-11-27; DVD
Best price: $14.25
Price in other shops: $23.99
Similar Books and other products
The Poetics of Space ImageThe Poetics of Space
by Gaston Bachelard
Beacon Press; Published: 1994-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.25
Price in other shops: $16.00
The Practice of Everyday Life ImageThe Practice of Everyday Life
by Michel de Certeau
University of California Press; Published: 2002-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.66
Price in other shops: $21.95
Savage Dreams: A Journey into the Landscape Wars of the American West ImageSavage Dreams: A Journey into the Landscape Wars of the American West
by Rebecca Solnit
University of California Press; Published: 2000-04-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.75
Price in other shops: $21.95
On Foot: A History of Walking ImageOn Foot: A History of Walking
by Joseph Amato
NYU Press; Published: 2004-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.80
Price in other shops: $35.00
Walking ImageWalking
by Henry David Thoreau
FQ Classics; Published: 2008-01-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.95
Price in other shops: $4.99
Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities ImageHope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities
by Rebecca Solnit
Nation Books; Published: 2006-01-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.12
Price in other shops: $13.95
River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West ImageRiver of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West
by Rebecca Solnit
Published: 2004-02-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.64
Price in other shops: $15.00
As Eve Said to the Serpent: On Landscape, Gender, and Art ImageAs Eve Said to the Serpent: On Landscape, Gender, and Art
by Rebecca Solnit
University of Georgia Press; Published: 2003-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.75
Price in other shops: $22.95
Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics ImageStorming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics
by Rebecca Solnit
University of California Press; Published: 2008-05-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.28
Price in other shops: $16.95
A Field Guide to Getting Lost ImageA Field Guide to Getting Lost
by Rebecca Solnit
Published: 2005-07-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.49
Price in other shops: $21.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories