Peak Pursuits: The Emergence of Mountaineering in the Nineteenth Century
An interdisciplinary cultural history of exploration and mountaineering in the nineteenth century

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. Inspired by Romantic notions of nature, early mountaineers idealized their endeavors as sublime experiences, all the while deliberately measuring what they saw. As increased leisure time and advances in infrastructure and equipment opened up once formidable mountain regions to those seeking adventure and sport, new models of masculinity emerged that were 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 in the Anthropocene.
1133730282
Peak Pursuits: The Emergence of Mountaineering in the Nineteenth Century
An interdisciplinary cultural history of exploration and mountaineering in the nineteenth century

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. Inspired by Romantic notions of nature, early mountaineers idealized their endeavors as sublime experiences, all the while deliberately measuring what they saw. As increased leisure time and advances in infrastructure and equipment opened up once formidable mountain regions to those seeking adventure and sport, new models of masculinity emerged that were 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 in the Anthropocene.
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Peak Pursuits: The Emergence of Mountaineering in the Nineteenth Century

Peak Pursuits: The Emergence of Mountaineering in the Nineteenth Century

by Caroline Schaumann
Peak Pursuits: The Emergence of Mountaineering in the Nineteenth Century

Peak Pursuits: The Emergence of Mountaineering in the Nineteenth Century

by Caroline Schaumann

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Overview

An interdisciplinary cultural history of exploration and mountaineering in the nineteenth century

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. Inspired by Romantic notions of nature, early mountaineers idealized their endeavors as sublime experiences, all the while deliberately measuring what they saw. As increased leisure time and advances in infrastructure and equipment opened up once formidable mountain regions to those seeking adventure and sport, new models of masculinity emerged that were 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 in the Anthropocene.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780300252828
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication date: 07/28/2020
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 320
File size: 10 MB

About the Author

Caroline Schaumann is professor of German studies at Emory University. She is co-editor of Heights of Reflection: Mountains in the German Imagination from the Middle Ages to the Twenty-First Century and author of Memory Matters: Generational Responses to Germany’s Nazi Past in Recent Women’s Literature.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Encounters with Rock and Ice Between Science and Sublimity 1

Part I From Europe to the Americas: Alexander Von Humboldt

1 The Vicissitudes of Humboldt's Mountain Moments 27

2 The Drama of Ascent 48

Part II Alpine Adventures

3 The Alps: A Brief History 75

4 Horace-Benedict de Saussure's Quest for Mont Blanc 91

5 Icecapades: James David Forbes and Louis Agassiz 116

6 The Selling of the Alps and the Beginning of the "Golden Age Albert Smith and Alfred Wills 149

7 Poetic Science and Competitive Vigor John Tyndall Edward Whymper 174

8 The Making of Modern Climbing Leslie Stephen 209

Part III Exploring the American West

9 Transcontinental Shifts: Clarence King's Representation of the American West 233

10 The Solitary Mountaineer John Muir 260

Epilogue 289

Notes 299

Bibliography 335

Index 349

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