I haven't been writing much here lately, but some new things are up on Schaatshistorie.nl: Two videos from my new Evolution of Skating series: Bone skates and Archetype skates. Those links are to the English versions, they are also in Dutch here and there."Whither bone skates research?", a short article summarizing the state of research… Continue reading New publications
Category: Books and articles
Bones at a Crossroads
There is no skating in this book. I'm posting it anyway because My name is on the cover.It's officially out today. You can read it for free at Sidestone.com.
Baseball before We Knew It
Baseball before We Knew It by David Block, 2005. I just read David Block's Baseball before We Knew It. As might be inferred from its title, this book is not about skating. It's still great. I found a lot of parallels to my work on skating history in it. It covers some of the same… Continue reading Baseball before We Knew It
The myth of skating history
My new article, "The myth of skating history: Building elitism into a sport" has been published in a special issue of Leisure Sciences on myths and mythmaking. It's about the development of figure skating's origin story—that story about medieval Scandinavians traveling and hunting on bone skates that's at the beginning of pretty much every book… Continue reading The myth of skating history
Mrs. Syers in the Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung
Header to the first issue available in ANNO (July 1, 1880). I recently discovered the Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung archive in ANNO: Historische österreichische Zeitungen und Zeitschriften at the Austrian National Library. Spanning 1880–1927 with a few gaps, it is a fantastic resource for skating history! (Provided you read German.) This newspaper was published in Vienna, home… Continue reading Mrs. Syers in the Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung
The Field
When you read old skating books (or this blog), the Field comes up a lot. This post explains what it is and why it's important for skating history. The Field's logo. Image © The British Library Board. Courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive. The Field began in 1853 as a weekly magazine in 1853 aimed… Continue reading The Field
Skates Made of Bone is on sale!
Through June 14, you can get my book Skates Made of Bone: A History for 40% off (meaning $27 instead of the usual $45, plus shipping) by entering the code SPORTS40 on the McFarland website. This code also works for their other sports books, like Skating on Air: The Broadcast History of an Olympic Marquee… Continue reading Skates Made of Bone is on sale!
Spuren auf dem Eise
This is one of the great books of figure skating. It's in German and, as far as I know, has not been translated into English.
Skates Made of Bone
My book on bone skates is available for pre-order! You can get it directly from the publisher, McFarland, from Amazon, or from whatever bookstore you like best.
Skaters History on Ice and Roller Skating
The cover of Skaters History. From my collection. I first met this book at the 2018 World Figure Championship when Eddie Shipstad, Jr., showed me a copy he found among his uncle Roy's things. It's a little book published by the author, Julian T. Fitzgerald, in 1916. After the competition, I came home and looked… Continue reading Skaters History on Ice and Roller Skating