An Alternative History Of Bicycles And Motorcycles
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An Alternative History of Bicycles and Motorcycles
Author: Steven E. Alford
language: en
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Release Date: 2016-04-06
An Alternative History of Bicycles and Motorcycles: Two-Wheeled Transportation and Material Culture accounts for the nineteenth-century creation and development of two-wheeled vehicles, both human-powered and motorized. Specifically, the book focuses on the period from 1885 (which saw the appearance, simultaneously, of the Safety bicycle and the Einspur, the first motorcycle) to 1920, while exploring implications for later bicycling and motorcycling. We argue that invention of these vehicles, rather than the product of gifted individuals, should be seen as the consequence of a number of historical, economic, cultural and political forces that intersect so unpredictably that the notion of a genius inventor is reductive. The common evolutionary model of development from the bicycle to the motorcycle oversimplifies both the technology and its origins. Stripping the vehicles of all their material and cultural associations, such a model fails to advance our understanding of the devices, their creators, and their riders. Taking a contemporary vehicle and tracing its lineage creates a false sense of evolutionary necessity in its creation, and fails to account for the many possible developmental paths that were, for whatever reason, abandoned. By contrast, our book adopts a material culture approach, a form of inquiry that stresses the connections between artifacts and social relations. We consider not simply the bicycle and motorcycle as material objects but focus also on the complex socio-political and economic convergences that produced the materials, materials that in turn themselves shaped the vehicles’ appearance, function, and adoption by riders.
Provocations
‘Genuine radicalism provides hope. It provokes through a scandalous insistence that life can be otherwise, that we aren’t doomed to economic and environmental decline, and that we can make our future better than our past.’ Why did politicians think an independent slave nation might emerge from northern Queensland? Should we clone thylacines? How did a sociopath spur the first European architecture in Australia? What was ‘bicycle face’ and how did it relate to feminism? Jeff Sparrow has been described as ‘one of Australia’s most crucial political thinkers’. With restless curiosity his writing takes us from ancient tortoises to the psychology of gun massacres, from queer bushrangers to Enid Blyton, and from atheism to vampires to dachshunds. Provocations brings together Jeff Sparrow’s best writing from the last two decades, alongside important new work. Challenging, humane and inspiring. ‘Jeff Sparrow’s writing makes me think, laugh and shake my fist at the sky with rage. He explains and critiques and illuminates our messed-up world with moral clarity and humour, allowing even a dum-dum like me to get my head around what the hell capitalism is doing to us all, and why it must be stopped.’ – Tom Ballard ‘Jeff ’s writing is not always comfortable, but it’s absolutely necessary, peering into the cracks too many of us pass by, and revealing them for the chasms they are. But what sets him apart is the unflinching hope he offers at the same time. Jeff shows us the world, our world, can be so much better if only we were more willing to face it as it is now and fight for what it could be. Drench yourself in his words and find your cause.’ – Amy Remeikis ‘Jeff Sparrow has a profoundly thought-provoking way of presenting the truth.’ – Thomas Mayor ‘Reading Jeff Sparrow is always like having a conversation with the smartest person in the room. He’s essential.’ – Chloe Hooper ‘Jeff Sparrow is a critical voice for justice in an increasingly sparse field. As mainstream journalism teeters between commercial clickbait and dreary stenography, take a moment to celebrate the determined independence that he brings to his work. This is a timely retrospective, balancing a sharp eye for domestic political dynamics with an internationalist worldview; fresh, fierce and uncompromising.’ – Scott Ludlam ‘Sparrow is the most effective and consistent communicator of left-wing thought to a mainstream Australian audience of the past twenty years.’ – Sydney Review of Books ‘Sparrow is one of Australia’s leading public intellectuals.’ – SALIFE ‘He’s one of Australia’s most crucial political thinkers.’ – Saturday Paper
Two Wheels Good
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023** 'Full of delightful anecdotes and interviews and fascinating historical tales' Mail on Sunday A panoramic portrait of the wonderous vehicle whose passenger is also its engine. A toy, a tool, a liberator, or complete nuisance: the bicycle has been many things to many people over the decades, yet it endures as the most popular form of transport in the world. How has such a simple machine achieved so much? Combining history, travelogue and memoir, Jody Rosen reshapes our understanding of this ubiquitous vehicle from its invention in 1817 to its present-day renaissance as a 'green machine'. Readers meet unforgettable characters: women's suffragists who steered bikes to the barricades in the 1890s, a Bhutanese king who races mountain bikes in the Himalayas, astronauts who ride a floating bicycle in zero gravity. By examining the bicycle's past and peering into its future, Two Wheels Good forms a joyful ode to an engineering marvel of global importance. 'Funny, precise, surprising' Adam Gopnik 'Love for two-wheeled transport runs through every sentence' Economist 'Wry, rich, deeply researched' Patrick Radden Keefe