Contested Waters

A Social History of Swimming Pools in America

By: Jeff Wiltse

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Paperback | 1 May 2010 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
288 Pages

Edition Type
New edition

Dimensions(cm)
23.5 x 15.5 x 2.5

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$53.99

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This title presents a story of race riots, shrinking swimsuits, and conspicuous leisure. From nineteenth-century public baths to today's private backyard havens, swimming pools have long been a provocative symbol of American life. In this social and cultural history of swimming pools in the United States, Jeff Wiltse relates how, over the years, pools have served as asylums for the urban poor, leisure resorts for the masses, and private clubs for middle-class suburbanites. As sites of race riots, shrinking swimsuits, and conspicuous leisure, swimming pools reflect many of the tensions and transformations that have given rise to modern America.

Industry Reviews

"[Contested Waters is] the colorful story of America's municipal swimming pools... [and] a story of America. It's all here: a sense of this country's benevolence, its community relations, civic wars, social strata, sexuality and sexism as well as our capacity for having a good time. Chronicled along with these are our ill-feeling prejudice, ignorance and racial strife.... [Contested Waters offers] a good course in America. All its traits, fine and lamentable are found here - the most vivid being, alas, our stinking racism." - Dick Cavett, New York Times Book Review"

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