Barry Strauss

Rowing Against the Current

On Learning to Scull at Forty

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

In the midst of the standard dreary midlife crisis -- complete with wine tasting courses, yoga classes, and a failed attempt at a first novel -- a 40-year-old Barry Strauss falls unexpectedly and passionately in love with rowing, a sport in which a 27-year-old is a has been. Strauss, a classics professor, writes about the unanticipated delights of an affair that, like so many others, begins as a casual dalliance and develops into a full-blown obsession. Drawn to the sport in part because of his affinity for Greek antiquity, he develops a love for old boathouses, a longing for rivers at dawn, a thirst to test himself, and, ultimately, a renewed sense of self-reliance -- as someone who had experienced sports humiliation as far back as Little League suddenly find himself bursting into athleticism at an unlikely age. From the awe-inspiring feats of the war-bound Greek triremes with their crews of 172 men rowing on three levels to the solitary pride of finishing a first race in which he gets stuck in the weeds and has to be fished out, Barry Strauss shows us why "there is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half as much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Scribner
• Seitenzahl: 176
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. April 2001
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 216mm x 140mm x 11mm
• Gewicht: 257g
• ISBN-13: 9780684863306
• ISBN-10: 0684863308
• Artikelnr.: 21719319

Autorenporträt

Barry Strauss, professor of history and classics at Cornell University, is a leading expert on ancient military history. He has written or edited several books, including The Battle of Salamis, The Trojan War, and The Spartacus War.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents
Foreword
Introduction
1 The Practice
2 The Beginner
3 The Coach
4 The Greeks
5 The Race
6 The Return
Suggested Readings