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.
- ISBN10 0300231946
- ISBN13 9780300231946
- Publish Date 25 August 2020
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Yale University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 384
- Language English