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Pedestrianism: When Watching People Walk Was America’s Favorite Spectator Sport

byMatthew Algeo

Strange as it sounds, during the 1870s and 1880s, America’s most popular spectator sport wasn’t baseball, boxing, or horseracing—it was competitive walking. Pedestrianism combines archival sources, narrative history, and voices from the period, allowing the evidence to complicate easy judgments and familiar explanations. Seen through the lens of history and sports & recreation, Pedestrianism explains not only what happened, but why competing interpretations still matter. By the end, when watching people walk was america’s favorite spectator sport emerges as a layered story of competing motives, unintended results, and choices made under pressure.

Publisher

Chicago Review Press

Publication date

Sep 01, 2017

Format

Print edition

Pages

272

ISBN

9781613738825