Other Everests
One mountain, many worlds
Edited by Paul Gilchrist, Peter Hansen and Jonathan Westaway
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- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 334
- Price: £19.99
- Published Date: November 2024
Description
A hundred years after the tragic 1924 British Everest expedition, this collection explores the wider social and cultural history of the mountain.
Mount Everest looms large in the popular imagination. Since the deaths of mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine in 1924, histories of the mountain have overwhelmingly focused on the mythologies of western male adventure and conquest. But there are many more stories waiting to be told.
Other Everests brings together new voices and perspectives on the historical and cultural significance of Everest in the modern world. The book shines a light on the overlooked role of local people and high-altitude workers, while also revealing the significant contributions women have made to climbing the mountain and writing its history. It explores the depiction of Everest in a range of media and investigates how the forces of nationalism and commercialism have shaped many different 'Everests'.
After years of exploitation, Indigenous people are now reclaiming Mount Everest in the twenty-first century. Other Everests re-examines the past and present of the world's highest peak, presenting an exciting vision of what Everest might become in the future.
Reviews
'This book is an indispensable cornucopia of fresh Everest perspectives across a range of disciplines, edited by three of the best Everest academics around.'
Ed Douglas, author of Himalaya: A Human History
'A huge milestone in scholarly research on Chomolungma/Mount Everest.'
Jon Mathieu, author of The Alps: An Environmental History
'Jomolangma, Sagarmatha or Everest. however you might know the mountain, this is the book we all needed. It reflects the plurality of the world we live in, written from the vantage point of "Everest".'
Pasang Yangjee Sherpa, Assistant Professor of Lifeways in Indigenous Asia, University of British Columbia
'Finally, the history of the world's highest mountain as the flashpoint of colonial ambition, dreams of national glory and mountaineering heroism gets the serious treatment and critique it deserves, with essays on expedition history, gender issues, climate change and more. Want to know more about Everest? Read this collection.'
Julie Rak, author of False Summit: Gender in Mountaineering Nonfiction
'Everything you always wanted to know about climbing Mount Everest - that you won't find in the standard accounts.'
Maurice Isserman, co-author of Fallen Giants: Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes
'Other Everests is a wide-ranging and absorbing set of essays that decisively reframes the received history of the world's highest mountain.'
Stewart Weaver, author of Exploration: A Very Short Introduction
Contents
Introduction: one mountain, many worlds - Peter H. Hansen, Paul Gilchrist and Jonathan Westaway
1 The immovable goddess: the long life of Miyo Lang Sangma - Ruth Gamble
2 Naming Mount Everest: mountain cartography and languages of exonymy - Felix de Montety
3 Re-activating the expeditionary archive - Felix Driver
4 The benefit of chocolate and cold tea: equipping early British Everest expeditions - Sarah Pickman
5 Far away frontiers and spiritual sanctuaries: Occidental escapism in the high Himalaya - Tim Chamberlain
6 Seeing histories from the margins: an Indigenous labour force on Everest, 1921-53 - Jayeeta Sharma
7 Women on Everest: a summit beyond - Jenny Hall
8 Rewriting Irvine into Everest: Audrey Salkeld and Julie Summers - Anna Saroldi
9 Expecting hypermasculinity from a woman mountaineer: Wanda Rutkiewicz's ascent of Everest - Agnieszka Irena Kaczmarek
10 The 'Slovenian' Everest 1979: a small nation and the highest mountain in the world - Peter Miksa and Matija Zorn
11 Reclaiming Everest: discontents, disasters and the making of a Nepali mountain - Ian Bellows
12 Sherpa's Everest and expedition conglomerate - Young Hoon Oh
13 The numbers game on Mount Everest: new 'lows' on the world's highest mountain - Pradeep Bashyal and Ankit Babu Adhikari
14 Digital media on Everest: practices, imaginations and futures - Jolynna Sinanan
15 Thin ice, thin air - Yvonne Reddick
16 Everests on stage: contemporary theatre's contribution to decolonising the mountain - Jonathan Pitches
Index
Editors
Paul Gilchrist is Principal Lecturer in Geography in the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Brighton
Peter H. Hansen is Professor of History and Director of International and Global Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Jonathan Westaway is Senior Research Fellow in History in the School of Psychology and Humanities at the University of Central Lancashire