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Unjustifiable Risk? – The Story of British Climbing

Unjustifiable Risk? is the story of the social, economic and cultural conditions that gave rise to the British rock climbing and mountaineering movement, as well as the achievements and motives of the scientists and poets, parsons and anarchists, villains and judges, ascetics and drunks that have shaped its development over the past two hundred years. The book also discusses what makes the climbers of today, who undoubtedly share a desire to escape from urban society, routinely take what most people might consider such unjustifiable risks. The book is divided, by era, into the following key chapters: Before 1854: In Search of the Sublime, 1854’“65: A Conscious Divinity, 1865’“1914: Gentlemen and Gymnasts, 1914’“39: Organised Cowardice, 1939’“70: Hard Men in an Affluent Society, 1970: Reinventing the Impossible, Because it’™s there?. A list of photographs and a selected bibliography is provided and appendixes hold detail on climbing grades and a glossary of terms.