Description
Book SynopsisSomewhere in a German forest 200 years ago, during the darkest, wettest summer for centuries, the story of cycling began. The calls to ban it were more or less immediate.
Re:Cyclists is the tale of the following two centuries. It tells how cycling became a kinky vaudeville act for Parisians, how it was the basis of an American business empire to rival Henry Ford''s, and how it found a unique home in the British Isles.
The Victorian love of cycling started with penny-farthing riders, who explored lonely roads that had been left abandoned by the coming of the railways. Then high-society took to it--in the 1980s the glittering parties of the London Season featured bicycles dancing in the ballroom, and every member of the House of Lords rode a bike.
Twentieth-century cycling was very different, and even more popular. It became the sport and the pastime of millions of ordinary people who wanted to escape the city smog, or to experience the excitement of a
Trade Review
As witty, accurate and eloquently written a history of the bicycle as you are ever likely to read -- Chris Boardman
An essential look at how cycling has taken over the world -- Sir Chris Hoy
As if Bill Bryson had taken to two wheels * FT *
A thorough and fascinating read, as you would expect from Dr Hutch. It charts the strange evolution of what we now unthinkingly accept: cycling is cool. How it came to be is another story altogether. -- Ned Boulting
An excellent history of the two-wheeled machine … Hutchinson plots his way through the physical, social and sporting history of cycling with immense pleasure, pace and humour. * Daily Express *
Michael Hutchinson will already be known to many for his entertaining and humorous writing, and this book carries on in the same vein * road.cc *
Michael Hutchinson has written a funny book about what could be – and often is – dry-as-sticks: the history of the bicycle. * bikebiz.com *
Re:Cyclists is an enjoyable romp through Britain's cycling history ... If you want to know how the British got from the hobby-horse to hipsters on fixies, this is as good a place as any to start finding the answers. * Podiumcafe *
Whether you’re a city boy banker racing into the Square Mile or a hipster wheeling around Shoreditch, this is for you. * Gentleman’s Journal *
An historical and fascinating account of the last 200 years of the progression of cycling … A well-written and intelligent read. * Outdoor Fitness *
Table of Contents
Introduction: A Man Walks into a Bar 1 1817: The Big Bang 2 The 1860s: Parisian Perversions and the World's First Bicycle Race 3 The Dignity of the Victorian Clubmen 4 1870 – 1900: American Cycling and the Genius of Colonel Albert Pope 5 1874: The Honourable Ion Keith-Falconer 6 Safety Bicycles and Extreme Danger: Mile-a-Minute Murphy and the Lion's Den 7 The 1890s: The Great Society Cycling Craze 8 Twentieth-Century Racing and the Loneliness of the Time Triallists 9 1900 – 1920: Cycling and Moting 10 1920 – 1958: The Tourists 11 1942 – 1959: The British League of Racing Cyclists 12 1957: 'Most of Our People Have Never Had it so Good' 13 1960 – 1990: An Ugley Situation 14 1992 – 2016: The Life of Lottery 15 Towards a Cycling Tomorrow Endnotes Acknowledgements Index
