Empire in waves : a political history of surfing /

Empire in waves : a political history of surfing /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Laderman, Scott, 1971-
Imprint:Berkeley : University of California Press, ©2014.
©2014
Description:1 online resource (xii, 238 pages) : illustrations
Language:English
Series:Sport in world history ; 1
Sport in world history ; 1.
Subject:
Surfing -- History.
Surfing -- Political aspects.
Surfing.
Electronic book.
History.
Electronic books.
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11216269
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9780520958043
0520958047
9781306290654
1306290651
9780520279100
9780520279117
0520279107
0520279115
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
English.
Print version record.
Summary: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.
Other form:Print version: Laderman, Scott. Empire in Waves. University of California Press 2014 9780520279100
Standard no.:ebc1589128
Table of Contents:
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction: A Political History of Surfing
  • 1 · How Surfing Became American: The Imperial Roots of Modern Surf Culture
  • 2 · A World Made Safe for Discovery: Travel, Cultural Diplomacy, and the Politics of Surf Exploration
  • 3 · Paradise Found: The Discovery of Indonesia and the Surfing Imagination
  • 4 · When Surfing Discovered It Was Political: Confronting South African Apartheid
  • 5 · Industrial Surfing: The Commodification of Experience
  • Epilogue: A New Millennium
  • Notes
  • Index.

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