Product Description

Jim Ring tells the story of the English love affair with the Alps, from its beginnings in the early Romantic movement, through the formation of the Alpine Club, to the interwar years and the development of downhill skiing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #302935 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-28
• Binding: Hardcover
• 287 pages

Daily Mail
'A fascinating and well-researched history of the rise and fall of the English in the Alps'

Synopsis
As the British Empire spread accross the globe during the 19th century, another quieter conquest was going on much nearer to home: grdually the English were taking over the Alps. This text explores the story of the English love affair with the Alps, from its beginnings in the early Romantic movement, through the days of the 1850s and 1860s and the formation of the Alpine Club, to the inter-war years when the English assured the future prosperity of the alpine resorts by virtually inventing and then popularizing downhill-skiing.;Part history and part biography, the volume examines the artists, scientists, gentlemen-adventurers, invalids, and the aristocrats and eccentrics who all flocked to the Alps.

About the Author
Jim Ring's biography of Erskine Childers, author of The Riddle of the Sands, won the Marsh Prize for Biography in 1996. He is married with a daughter and son, and lives on the north Norfolk coast.

Customer Reviews

A good account
"How the English Made the Alps" pretty much achieves exactly what the title suggests. The book provides an excellent chronological account of how English visitors started by exploring and climbing in the Alps, and then went on through "health tourism" and the pursuit of winter sports to develop the region commercially.

Ring has clearly done pretty exhaustive research into the topic, particularly on the conquests of various mountain peaks. He conveys the initial scientific endeavour that spurred climbers on, and also manages to communicate the eccentricity of pursuing alpine "conquest" once the scientific rationale had disappeared.

Given the title, there is a strong Anglo-bias to the writing which perhaps underplays some of the contributions from other countries - foreign climbers are seen generally in the light of competitors and foils for English advances. Again, with the constraints of the title, there is little of the early history of the region in the volume. These are minor quibbles, however, in what is overall a very good account. It is a shame that Fleming's "Killing Dragons" was published so close to this - you wait years for a decent account of the development of the Alps, and then two come along at once. There is enough difference between the two, however, that readers will benefit from reading both.

Readable and entertaining
This is a most readable, well written, and very entertaining review of the history of tourism, sport, and the exploration of the Alps, with particular emphasis on the role played by the English. I have never been to the Alps, and have never participated or been interested in winter sports, yet I still enjoyed this book. I think I'll look out other books by Jim Ring I enjoyed it so much.

A review of the growth of climbing and tourism in the Alps
This is an excellent and very readable history from the early 19th century to the mid 20th century of the English/British "colonisation" of the Alps and their contribution to mountaineering, tourism, skiing and the economy of the Alpine region.

It may irritate continental Europeans because it is very English centric but the impression is that the English (or should Jim Ring have used the word British?) were a huge force in the change that came about in the Alps in the 19th and 20th centuries, because they were the ones who had the money to spend.

For me the main faults are that it is mainly about mountaineering and that it does not follow through about the English contribution to such resorts such as Méribel and Val d'Isere, which owe an awful lot to the English gentlemen skier and would give the book a link to modern British visitors to the Alps who rarely, I think it would be true to say, climb the Matterhorn!

Any body who has an interest in the Alps should read this book.