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The Science of Walking: Investigations into Locomotion in the Long Nineteenth Century
The Science of Walking recounts the story of the growing interest and investment of Western scholars, physicians, and writers in the scientific study of an activity that seems utterly trivial in its everyday performance yet essential to our human nature: walking. Most people see walking as a natural and unremarkable activity of daily life, yet the mechanism has long puzzled scientists and doctors, who considered it an elusive, recalcitrant, and even mysterious act. In The Science of Walking, Andreas Mayer provides a history of investigations of the human gait that emerged at the intersection of a variety of disciplines, including physiology, neurology, orthopedic surgery, anthropology, and psychiatry.
Looking back at more than a century of locomotion research, Mayer charts, for the first time, the rise of scientific endeavors to control and codify locomotion and analyzes their social, political, and aesthetic ramifications throughout the long nineteenth century. In an engaging narrative that weaves together science and history, Mayer sets the work of the most important representatives of the physiology of locomotion—including Wilhelm and Eduard Weber and Étienne-Jules Marey—in their proper medical, political, and artistic contexts. In tracing the effects of locomotion studies across other cultural domains, Mayer reframes the history of the science of walking and gives us a deeper understanding of human movement.
Looking back at more than a century of locomotion research, Mayer charts, for the first time, the rise of scientific endeavors to control and codify locomotion and analyzes their social, political, and aesthetic ramifications throughout the long nineteenth century. In an engaging narrative that weaves together science and history, Mayer sets the work of the most important representatives of the physiology of locomotion—including Wilhelm and Eduard Weber and Étienne-Jules Marey—in their proper medical, political, and artistic contexts. In tracing the effects of locomotion studies across other cultural domains, Mayer reframes the history of the science of walking and gives us a deeper understanding of human movement.
232 pages, Hardcover
Published May 22, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 20, 2023
From a discussion post:
The Science of Walking is a puzzling book. Rather than chart a teleologic history of the “science of walking,” it attempts to show how walking has “proven remarkably recalcitrant to being transformed into a scientific object” (142). Over the course of the 19th-century studies of walking vacillated anthropology and science; from Rousseau’s interpretation of walking as the natural mode to Barthez's divisions of the body into animal and organic life to Weber’s regimented analysis of the constituents parts of the movement of the legs, etc. The struggle over walking appears illustrative of a larger battle within Europe as it emerged into modernity. How could intellectuals square the theories of the past with new positivist methodologies? How does one make an unscientific method scientific?
A second set of questions deals with the body: How does the shift in the interpretation of walking explain a shifting understanding of the body? How does Mauss’s anthropological approach relate to the scientific approaches of those around him? How do Mauss, and the other theorists create normative interpretations of the body (and its techniques)?
A third set deals with Mayer’s method. Is Mayer sufficiently critical of the context of each thinker's world? That is, does he pay enough attention to the socio-cultural reality in which he thinker emerged, and the implications of many of the theorists’ normative interpretations of the body?
The Science of Walking is a puzzling book. Rather than chart a teleologic history of the “science of walking,” it attempts to show how walking has “proven remarkably recalcitrant to being transformed into a scientific object” (142). Over the course of the 19th-century studies of walking vacillated anthropology and science; from Rousseau’s interpretation of walking as the natural mode to Barthez's divisions of the body into animal and organic life to Weber’s regimented analysis of the constituents parts of the movement of the legs, etc. The struggle over walking appears illustrative of a larger battle within Europe as it emerged into modernity. How could intellectuals square the theories of the past with new positivist methodologies? How does one make an unscientific method scientific?
A second set of questions deals with the body: How does the shift in the interpretation of walking explain a shifting understanding of the body? How does Mauss’s anthropological approach relate to the scientific approaches of those around him? How do Mauss, and the other theorists create normative interpretations of the body (and its techniques)?
A third set deals with Mayer’s method. Is Mayer sufficiently critical of the context of each thinker's world? That is, does he pay enough attention to the socio-cultural reality in which he thinker emerged, and the implications of many of the theorists’ normative interpretations of the body?
September 30, 2020
A fascinating study of how people work to understand the physical act of walking -- locomotion. The author does an excellent job of presenting the dominating views and the critiques. It examines the construction of "natural" posture or "natural walking". Also an exploration of gait - natural.
March 30, 2022
This book was quite boring to me. It is about the researchers and their work on walking.
I was looking for a book that discussed walking and the science behind why it is good for us.
Some interesting points but it is more about the evolution of science within walking.
I was looking for a book that discussed walking and the science behind why it is good for us.
Some interesting points but it is more about the evolution of science within walking.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews