000			02414nam a2200229Ia 4500
003			NULRC
005			20250520102909.0
008			250520s9999 xx 000 0 und d
020			_a9781780238197
040			_cNULRC
050			_aGV 836.4 .Ch35 2017
100			_aChaline, Eric _eauthor
245		0	_aStrokes of genius : _ba history of swimming / _cEric Chaline
260			_aLondon, United Kingdom : _bReaktion Books, _cc2017
300			_a328 pages : _billustrations ; _c24 cm
365			_bPHP981
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505			_aIntroduction -- The Aquatic hominin -- Divine swimmers -- Harvesting the treasures of the sea -- The Art of swimming -- Pure, clean, and healthy -- Bathing beauties -- Temples of Neptune -- The Silent world -- This Sporting life -- Imaginary swimmers -- The Aquatic human
520			_aWhat could be better than diving into cool water on a hot day? In this enormously enjoyable and informative history of swimming, Eric Chaline sums up this most summery of moments with one phrase: pleasure beckons at the water’s edge. Strokes of Genius traces the history of swimming from the first civilizations to its current worldwide popularity as a sport, fitness pastime, and leisure activity. Chaline explores swimming’s role in ritual, early trade and manufacturing, warfare, and medicine, before describing its transformation in the early modern period into a leisure activity and a competitive sport—the necessary precursors that have made it the most common physical pastime in the developed world. The book celebrates the physicality and sensuality of swimming—attributes that Chaline argues could have contributed to the evolution of the human species. Swimming, like other disciplines that use repetitive movements to train the body and quiet the mind, is also a means of spiritual awakening—a personal journey of discovery. Swimming has attained the status of a cultural marker, denoting eroticism, leisure, endurance, adventure, exploration, and excellence. Strokes of Genius shows that there is not a single story of human swimming, but many currents that merge, diverge, and remerge. Chaline argues that swimming will become particularly important as we look toward a warmer future in which our survival may depend on our ability to adapt to life in an aquatic world.
650			_aSWIMMING
942			_2lcc _cBK
999			_c18174 _d18174