Mountains have played a major role in the American psyche and the history of our country. Once perceived as places of evil or barriers to progress, the conquest of their peaks became a key component of westward expansion in the 19th century. Our fascination with mountains and those who climb them inspired two of America's greatest contributions to the world: the establishment of national parks and the birth of the modern environmental movement.
On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Maurice Isserman, whose history of American mountaineering, Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering, explores the philosophy, politics and spirituality that shapes and drives people to climb mountains, and the impact that has on those of us who don't.
Maurice Isserman is a professor of history at Hamilton College in upstate New York and author of numerous books on the history of the American Left and more recently on mountaineering.
- KBOO