Empire in Waves

A Political History of Surfing

Scott Laderman (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

256 Seiten

2014
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-27911-7 (ISBN)

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Surfing today evokes many things: thundering waves, warm beaches, bikinis and lifeguards, and carefree pleasure. But is the story of surfing really as simple as popular culture suggests? In this first international political history of the sport, Scott Laderman shows that while wave riding is indeed capable of stimulating tremendous pleasure, its globalization went hand in hand with the blood and repression of the long twentieth century. Emerging as an imperial instrument in post-annexation Hawaii, spawning a form of tourism that conquered the littoral Third World, tracing the struggle against South African apartheid, and employed as a diplomatic weapon in America's Cold War arsenal, the saga of modern surfing is only partially captured by Gidget, the Beach Boys, and the film Blue Crush. From nineteenth-century American empire-building in the Pacific to the low-wage labor of the surf industry today, Laderman argues that surfing in fact closely mirrored American foreign relations. Yet despite its less-than-golden past, the sport continues to captivate people worldwide.
Whether in El Salvador or Indonesia or points between, the modern history of this cherished pastime is hardly an uncomplicated story of beachside bliss. Sometimes messy, occasionally contentious, but never dull, surfing offers us a whole new way of viewing our globalized world.

Scott Laderman is Associate Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and the author of Tours of Vietnam: War, Travel Guides, and Memory.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION. A Political History of Surfing CHAPTER 1. How Surfing Became American: The Imperial Roots of Modern Surf Culture CHAPTER 2. A World Made Safe for Discovery: Travel, Cultural Diplomacy, and the Politics of Surf Exploration CHAPTER 3. Paradise Found: The Discovery of Indonesia and the Surfing Imagination CHAPTER 4. When Surfing Discovered It Was Political: Confronting South African Apartheid CHAPTER 5. Industrial Surfing: The Commodification of Experience EPILOGUE. A New Millennium NOTES INDEX

Reihe/Serie	Sport in World History ; 1
Verlagsort	Berkerley
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	363 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Segeln / Tauchen / Wassersport
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte
ISBN-10	0-520-27911-5 / 0520279115
ISBN-13	978-0-520-27911-7 / 9780520279117
Zustand	Neuware