'A scout must always be prepared at any moment to do his duty, and to face danger in order to help his fellow-men.'A startling amalgam of Zulu war-cry and imperial and urban myth, of borrowed tips on health and hygiene, and object lessons in woodcraft, Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys (1908) is the original blueprint and 'self-instructor' of the Boy Scout Movement. One of the all-time bestsellers in the English-speaking world, this primer of 'yarns and pictures' constitutes probably the most influential manual for youth ever published. Yet the book is at the same time a roughly composed hodge-podge of jingoist lore and tracker legend, padded with lengthy quotations from adventure fiction and Baden-Powell's own autobiography, and seamed through with the multiple anxieties of its time: fears of degeneration, concerns about masculinity and self-restraint, invasion paranoia. Elleke Boehmer's edition of Scouting for Boys reprints the original text and illustrations, and her fine introduction investigates a book that has been cited as an authority by militarists and pacifists, capitalists and environmentalists alike.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2018-09-27
Mått:142 x 217 x 38 mm
Vikt:568 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Oxford World's Classics Hardback Collection
Antal sidor:448
Förlag:OUP OXFORD
ISBN:9780198799993

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Elleke Boehmer is the Professor of World Literature in English at the University of Oxford, and Director of the Oxford Life Writing Centre at Wolfson College. A founding figure in the field of colonial and postcolonial literary studies, she is the author, editor, or co-editor of over twenty books, including monographs and novels. Her monographs include Colonial and Postcolonial Literature (1995/2005), Stories of Women (2005), Indian Arrivals (winner ESSE 2015-16 prize), and Postcolonial Poetics (2018). Her novels include The Shouting in the Dark (long-listed Sunday Times prize, 2015), and Screens again the Sky (short-listed David Higham Prize 1990). Sharmilla and other Portraits is her 2010 volume of short stories. She is the General Editor of the Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures Series.