Description
Book SynopsisWhen blacksmith Pierre Michaux affixed pedals to the front axle of a two-wheeled scooter with a seat, he helped kick off a craze known as
velocipedomania, which swept France in the late 1860s. The immediate forerunner of the bicycle, the velocipede similarly reflected changing cultural attitudes and challenged gender norms.
Velocipedomania is the first in-depth study of the velocipede fad and the popular culture it inspired. It explores how the device was hailed as a symbol of France’s cutting-edge technological advancements, yet also marketed as an invention with a noble pedigree, born from the nation’s cultural and literary heritage. Giving readers a window into the material culture and enthusiasms of Second Empire France, it provides the first English translations of 1869’s
Manual of the Velocipede, 1868’s
Note on Monsieur Michaux’s Velocipede, and the 1869 operetta
Dagobert and his Velocipede. It also reprints scores of rare images from newspapers and advertisements, analyzing how these magnificent machines captured the era’s visual imagination. By looking at how it influenced French attitudes towards politics, national identity, technology, fashion, fitness, and gender roles, this book shows how the short-lived craze of
velocipedomania had a big impact.
Trade Review“Careening across the stage, lifted into song, championed in story—velocipedes take France by storm in 1869-70. The machine of speed touches on gender, politics, class, and more. Never has cultural history been more informative or more fun than in the rollicking translations and commentary of
Velocipedomania.”— Scott Carpenter, author of Aesthetics of Fraudulence in Nineteenth-Century France
“In
Velocipedomania, Cropper and Whidden bring to light an unexamined page of French cultural history—France’s obsession and cultural identification with the bicycle that began in the 1860s and that persists to this day. This lively compilation of texts about the velocipede, the iconic two-wheel wood and iron vehicle, will delight readers.”— Masha Belenky, author of Engine of Modernity: The Omnibus and Urban Culture in Nineteenth-Century Paris
“Engaging, well-researched, and expertly translated,
Velocipedomania gives insight into the craze this two-wheeled machine inspired in the late 1860s and, more generally, into the rich popular culture of the period.”— Anne O’Neil-Henry, author of Mastering the Marketplace: Popular Literature in Nineteenth-Century France
“This book is a fabulous exploration of the social and cultural importance of the velocipede—a short-lived but consequential predecessor to the modern bicycle—in France during the late 1860s.”— Robert Lewis, author of The Stadium Century: Sport, Spectatorship and Mass Society in Modern France
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Velocipedomania
CHAPTER ONE
The Utilitarian Velocipede
Note on Monsieur Michaux’s Velocipede
CHAPTER TWO
The Velocipede on Stage
Dagobert and His Velocipede
CHAPTER THREE
Narrating Velocipedomania
Manual of the Velocipede
CHAPTER FOUR
Velocipedomania in Verse
CONCLUSION
“We Thought the Velocipede Was Dead”
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Index
