Boston's Cycling Craze, 1880-1900: A Story of Race, Sport, and Society

University of Massachusetts Press, 2014. Softcover. Very Good. Lorenz J. Finison explores the remarkable rise of Boston cycling through the lives of several participants, including Kittie Knox, a biracial twenty-year-old seamstress who challenged the color line; Mary Sargent Hopkins, a self-proclaimed expert on women's cycling and publisher of The Wheelwoman; and Abbot Bassett, a longtime secretary of the League of American Wheelman and a vocal cycling advocate for forty years. Finison shows how these riders and others interacted on the road and in their cycling clubhouses, often constrained by issues of race, class, religion, and gender. He reveals the challenges facing these riders, whether cycling for recreation or racing, in a time of segregation, increased immigration, and debates about the rights of women." Octavo, 312 pp. In wraps (softcover). From private collection. Small crease to bottom corner of upper wrap and first couple of pages, else Fine.