Author: Andrew Stephan Denning

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781267023315

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This dissertation studies the historical relationship between skiers and the Alps from the introduction of the sport to Central Europe in the 1880s through 1990. I employ the tools of cultural and environmental history to examine the relationship between skiing, the Alps, and modernity to show how leisure practices such as sport and tourism played a vital role in the definition of modern European culture and spurred modernization in the Alps. I accomplish this in four chronologically overlapping, thematic chapters, treating (1) the introduction of skiing into the Alps during the fin de siècle and its effects, (2) the relationship between Alpine skiing and cultural modernism from 1900 to 1940, (3) the effects of the culture of modern sport on both Alpine skiing and the Alps from 1920 to 1980, and (4) the development of Alpine skiing as the foundation of the winter tourism industry in the Alps from 1930 to 1990. To execute this study, I examine a wide array of primary sources from Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Switzerland, including archival evidence, unpublished papers, newspapers, journals, cultural productions (such as film, art, and novels), and ephemera. I argue that whereas Europeans had long understood both skiing and the Alps as backwards and peripheral, together they became central to the development of European modernity in the twentieth century. Alpine skiers were united by a transnational culture based in common experiences and their shared relationship with the Alpine landscape. The growing popularity of Alpine skiing, which I trace to the sport's unique cultural appeal, led Alpine skiers and their representatives to alter the Alpine landscape to suit the practice of the sport, thus transforming their understanding of the Alps.

Download or read book Schuss! written by Andrew Stephan Denning and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation studies the historical relationship between skiers and the Alps from the introduction of the sport to Central Europe in the 1880s through 1990. I employ the tools of cultural and environmental history to examine the relationship between skiing, the Alps, and modernity to show how leisure practices such as sport and tourism played a vital role in the definition of modern European culture and spurred modernization in the Alps. I accomplish this in four chronologically overlapping, thematic chapters, treating (1) the introduction of skiing into the Alps during the fin de siècle and its effects, (2) the relationship between Alpine skiing and cultural modernism from 1900 to 1940, (3) the effects of the culture of modern sport on both Alpine skiing and the Alps from 1920 to 1980, and (4) the development of Alpine skiing as the foundation of the winter tourism industry in the Alps from 1930 to 1990. To execute this study, I examine a wide array of primary sources from Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Switzerland, including archival evidence, unpublished papers, newspapers, journals, cultural productions (such as film, art, and novels), and ephemera. I argue that whereas Europeans had long understood both skiing and the Alps as backwards and peripheral, together they became central to the development of European modernity in the twentieth century. Alpine skiers were united by a transnational culture based in common experiences and their shared relationship with the Alpine landscape. The growing popularity of Alpine skiing, which I trace to the sport's unique cultural appeal, led Alpine skiers and their representatives to alter the Alpine landscape to suit the practice of the sport, thus transforming their understanding of the Alps.