Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
This magesterial and thrilling history argues that the story of American mountaineering is the story of America itself.
In Continental Divide, Maurice Isserman tells the history of American mountaineering through four centuries of landmark climbs and first ascents. Mountains were originally seen as obstacles to civilization; over time they came to be viewed as places of redemption and renewal. The White Mountains stirred the transcendentalists; the Rockies and Sierras pulled explorers westward toward Manifest Destiny; Yosemite inspired the early environmental conservationists.
Climbing began in North America as a pursuit for lone eccentrics but grew to become a mass-participation sport. Beginning with Darby Field in 1642, the first person to climb a mountain in North America, Isserman describes the exploration and first ascents of the major American mountain ranges, from the Appalachians to Alaska. He also profiles the most important American mountaineers, including such figures as John C. Frémont, John Muir, Annie Peck, Bradford Washburn, Charlie Houston, and Bob Bates, relating their exploits both at home and abroad.
Isserman traces the evolving social, cultural, and political roles mountains played in shaping the country. He describes how American mountaineers forged a "brotherhood of the rope," modeled on America’s unique democratic self-image that characterized climbing in the years leading up to and immediately following World War II. And he underscores the impact of the postwar "rucksack revolution," including the advances in technique and style made by pioneering "dirtbag" rock climbers.
A magnificent, deeply researched history, Continental Divide tells a story of adventure and aspiration in the high peaks that makes a vivid case for the importance of mountains to American national identity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this book "about American history, as seen through the prism of mountaineering," Isserman starts with the Pilgrims in 1642; he then climbs his way through the years to 1963, which he calls "perhaps, the greatest year in the history of American climbing," because of the groundbreaking routes being ascended in Yosemite and James Whittaker becoming the first American to summit Everest. There are tales of explorers such as Lewis and Clark; mountain men such as John Colter and Jedediah Smith; renowned nature-lovers Emerson, Thoreau, and Muir; and climbers Yvon Chouinard and Royal Robbins. Isserman brings these diverse stories together in a cohesive narrative with a strong combination of in-depth research and welcoming prose that even a climbing novice can understand. Though Isserman glosses over issues of the last 50 years (competitive climbing, sponsorships, ethics, the sport's fragmentation), his passionate scholarship turns this specialized sporting history into an easily accessible account of the exploration, subjugation, conservation, and appreciation of the great peaks of the U.S. and the world.