Wanderlust

A History of Walking

By: Rebecca Solnit

Narrated by: Liisa Ivary

Drawing together many histories - of anatomical evolution and city design, of treadmills and labyrinths, of walking clubs and sexual mores - Rebecca Solnit creates a fascinating portrait of the range of possibilities presented by walking. Arguing that the history of walking includes walking for pleasure as well as for political, aesthetic, and social meaning, Solnit focuses on the walkers whose everyday and extreme acts have shaped our culture, from philosophers to poets to mountaineers. She profiles some of the most significant walkers in history and fiction - from Wordsworth to Gary Snyder, from Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennet to Andre Breton's Nadja - finding a profound relationship between walking and thinking and walking and culture. Solnit argues for the necessity of preserving the time and space in which to walk in our ever more car-dependent and accelerated world.

©2000 Rebecca Solnit (P)2014 Audible Inc.

“FEET: We All Have Them” would be a better title

Wanderlust is a misleading title. Although there is some fascinating historical context in this book, the essays are only loosely connected. It is a better read than a listen.

Thoroughly engaging

Walking through the world has power. What we see while walking helps is crow as people. Those we walk with and March beside will have long-lasting impacts if we meet one another where we are.
A worthy listen.

A great work

This is an historical odyssey of walking. Incredible research and storytelling. I learned a lot and really enjoyed listening to it.

About one of the central activities of our species

This book is a combination of creative non-fiction talking of the author's own experience going on walks of different sorts along with a historical study of the place of walking in culture. I don't know how she was able to dig up so many disparate references to walking, hiking, touring, strolling, marching, in every conceivable setting as depicted by so many different sources from around the world. It was kind of dazzling to listen to all these essays stemming from different aspects of one simple action. We are reminded how tough it is for a toddler to learn how to master walking at the beginning of life. Although it seems that the act of walking, available to nearly of all of us, has been relegated to a niche role in our mechanized culture, she makes a convincing case for how it still affects our thinking and well-being. Health, economic, political, spiritual and other dimensions are considered.

There are extended discussions of the great walkers of the Enlightenment, political thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau and poet William Wordsworth who shifted the way walking was thought of. The author describes how city streets in Europe were once both semi-private, semi-public places to walk. Some people relied on the streets to earn their living, notably sex workers, who had to face attempts to regulate who was allowed to travel in the city, where, and when.

It's hard to think of a more artificial place to navigate by foot than the Las Vegas Strip with its casinos and spectacles, subject of the last chapter. This feels like a world apart from the walking pilgrimages of visitors to the old shrine at Chimayó, New Mexico, or the late 20th century activists who crossed the width of the United States to bring attention to some political cause. In an earlier chapter I was interested to learn of the the performance artists Martina Abramović and Ulay whose piece entitled "Lovers" involved their walking from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China, meeting and interacting with local people who heard about their project, to meet up at the middle, only for the two of them to separate. Walking the thousands of kilometers feels relevant to the meaning of the art.

It is appropriate that I consumed much of this book in audiobook form while walking around my neighborhood. It felt as though I could absorb it better by moving my own legs.

a walk through many pieces of history

This book is packed with historical facts. I happened to listen to it while taking my morning walks and I feel that greatly impacted the way I received the information. I recommend this book to anyone especially those looking for a listen while they walk, especially if you enjoy walking outdoors.