Book & podcast collection

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

by Matthew 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. Inside sold-out arenas, competitors walked around dirt tracks almost nonstop for six straight days (never on Sunday), risking their health and sanity to see who could walk the farthest—500 miles, then 52

Publisher

Chicago Review Press

Publication date

Sep 01, 2017

Format

Print edition

Pages

272

ISBN

9781613738825