Smethurst, Paul <br/><br/>
The bicycle :  towards a global history / 
Paul Smethurst 
 - Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ,  New York, NY :  Palgrave Macmillan,  c2015. 
 - xiii, 194 p. :  ill ;  25 cm. 
<br/><br/>Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-186) and index. 
<br/><br/> "The modern bicycle as we know it today was developed in England in the 1880s. A decade later, cycling was already a popular spectator sport and a recreational fashion across western society. Women's rights, class mobility and a modern spirit of individualism helped fuel this bicycle boom. In China, on the other hand, the bicycle's ubiquity reflected state-controlled social uniformity. Briefly, it became a symbol of resistance in Tiananmen Square in the 1980s, but crushed by tanks it later turned into a downward marker of class with millions scrapped. In the 21st century, the bicycle is enjoying a global resurgence. It is favoured as a sustainable form of transport, while also reinventing itself as a chic and sportive fashion object, and a generic protest vehicle.  With contradictory strands like these, the bicycle's cultural history is a rich subject for cross-cultural study. Beginning with the technical history of the bicycle's invention, and the socio-economic factors that precipitated it, the main focus of this book is the ever-changing cultural significance of the bicycle as an object, and of bicycling as a shifting, but ever popular social practice around the world.  "-- 
<br/><br/><label>ISBN: </label>9781137499493 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Bicycles--History<br/>Bicycles--Social aspects<br/>Cycling--Social aspects<br/>Cycling--Cross-cultural studies<br/>HISTORY / General<br/>HISTORY / World<br/>HISTORY / Social History
<br/><br/><label>Dewey Class. No.: </label>629.227/2