Berkshire Encyclopedia of Extreme Sports

by Berkshire Publishing Group, Holly Thorpe (Editor)

Overview

The Berkshire Encyclopedia of Extreme Sports provides the first international survey of extreme sports, which include a wide variety of physical pursuits and activities such as bungee jumping, dirt biking, sky surfing, and rock climbing: individualist, adventure-type sports rather than traditional team sports. "Extreme" also refers to the antisocial attitudes and uncompromising values associated with these new sports, attitudes and values that are often in sharp contrast to those of more conservative, mainstream, and middle-class sports. This volume is a state-of-the-art summary of where extreme sports are today, where they have come from, and how they are likely to grow and change in the years ahead.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780977015955
Publisher:	Berkshire Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/30/2006
Pages:	404
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 11.00(h) x 1.30(d)

Editorial Reviews

Over the last decade, extremehas become a popular adjective to describe a range of physical pursuits and activities, including air sports (e.g., bungee jumping), climbing sports (e.g., bouldering), combative sports (e.g., professional wrestling), ice and snow sports (e.g., sled racing), terrestrial sports (e.g., triathlons), water sports (e.g., windsurfing), and wheeled sports (e.g., skateboarding). Extreme sports have attracted major cultural, commercial, and media attention, and their importance and audience continue to grow. Editors Booth and Thorpe (sport & leisure studies, Sch. of Education, Univ. of Waikato, New Zealand) present a comprehensible overview of the new and emerging phenomenon of extreme sports from a worldwide perspective. Nearly 70 contributors provide articles, essays, biographies, and sidebars on approximately 50 sports (articles average five to six pages in length). They discuss the history, characteristics, philosophy, ideology, trends, cultural aspects, and future prospects of each sport; profile its participants; and offer suggestions for further reading.
—Kathleen A. Welton

Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-This ambitious volume includes factual and biographical information on extreme sports and their participants and explores the psychology behind the practice of these activities. More than 100 topics and people are covered. Writers discuss both the basic (inline skating/rollerblading, jet skiing) and the bizarre (extreme ironing, vine jumping on Pentecost Island), as well as social issues such as media coverage. Substantial biographical information, even on more well-known athletes, is somewhat lacking, although a further reading section is appended to each article. Some entries also have cross-references. The source notes and index are impressive, but there are too few photos, and they're all in black and white. The page numbers on each right-hand page are backwards, an annoying touch. For larger collections seeking to complement titles such as Joe Tomlinson and Ed Leigh's Extreme Sports(Firefly, 2004), this encyclopedia will provide more depth.-Carol Fazioli, Gwynedd-Mercy College, Gwynedd Valley, PA

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