CYCLING AND THE BRITISH, A MODERN HISTORY, NEIL CARTER (2022)
What cycling means – an engaging analysis of the ongoing revolution
Bloomsbury Academic, 368pp 234mm x 156mm 9781472572080 £28.99
Few manufactured products have endured in such a recognisable form as the safety bicycle. A pioneer pedaler of the 1880s would instantly identify today’s machines; riding them would be near effortless.
What has changed beyond recognition in the intervening 140 years, however, is the way bicycles are ridden, and the broader message implicit in their progress. They have been rich men’s toys, and women’s liberators. They were the centrepiece of the world’s first mass spectator sport, and the answer to an oil crisis. In later decades, bicycles have transported the masses to work, been the centre of secret, cultish sporting events, and an unassuming counterpoint to majority culture. More recently bicycles have become an ecological solution, a lifestyle accessory, and once again, a mass sporting spectacle. This is the story that Neil Carter charts, catalogues and unpicks in this excellent volume.
To my knowledge Carter’s book is the first serious-minded general history of cycling in Britain. It provides a stimulating and well-considered narrative, covering: the initial Victorian craze and subsequent fall from fashion; the golden age of club cycling and time trialing; the bitter conflict between the British League of Racing Cyclists and the National Cycling Union; and the bicycle’s near eclipse in the 1960s and 70s.
Even those who already know why some cyclists opposed the creation of dedicated cycle paths in the 1930s, or that David Duffield oversaw the creation of the first dedicated BMX track behind Halford’s headquarters in 1980, will find much to enlighten here. To some episodes, such as the ‘mass-start-racing’ schism, Carter brings a dispassion lacking in the protagonists memoirs.
He also shows up how much more historical examination cycling deserves. The trove of early accounts of cycle tours now available from the at Warwick’s Modern Record Center, for example, surely merits a book of their own? And Carter’s chapter on the modern trajectory of British cycle sport leaves significant scope for expansion.
Occasionally, he deploys ‘Thatcherism’ and ‘neoliberalism’ as pantomime baddies who appear from the wings with pernicious effect. His proposition that social class is key to understanding cycling’s evolution is correct, but greater nuance would made his case even more persuasive.
This has been written, published, and priced as an academic work. As a result the referencing and bibliography are an outstanding asset in themselves. The text, however, is as accessible as it is illuminating, and deserves wider readership among cyclists. A popular edition might well generate more revenue than one priced for university libraries.
TD February 2025