"Bloomsbury presents To the Limit by Michael Crawley, read by Raj Ghatak
'A fascinating and multilayered exploration of what it means to endure'
Alex Hutchinson, author of Endure
The author of Out of Thin Air, winner of the Margaret Mead Award 2022, journeys through different cultures to find out the meaning of endurance.
In a world where we are having to work harder than ever before, where talk of ‘burnout’ is everywhere and where pressures increase in many areas of our lives, some of us are turning to endurance sport and extreme challenges. Pushing human limits has even become enmeshed with pushing technological limits, a cultural obsession fed by a multibillion-dollar technology industry led by the likes of Fitbit and Apple. To the Limit asks why this might be and what kind of meaning we attach to our ability to endure.
Michael Crawley immerses himself in various endurance cultures and asks what makes enduring together meaningful to people. He learns how Nepalese runners face different challenges depending on their location up a mountain, from those in the lowlands and ‘middle hills’ to Sherpas from the Solu Khumbu, and observes Tarahumara ultrarunners’ ability to cover extreme distances on highly technical terrain. But he also delves into the history of Dance Marathons, six-day pedestrianism races in Madison Square Gardens and the unique Enhanced Games.
To the Limit explains why enduring with others can help fostering social connections and bringing people together, and argues that endurance might change the way we think about the natural world and our place in it. P 2024 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC C 2024 Michael Crawley"
"Bloomsbury presents Out of Thin Air by Michael Crawley, read by Raj Ghatak.
‘Full of wonderful insights and lessons from a world where the ability to run is viewed as something almost mysterious and magical.’ – Adharanand Finn, author of Running with the Kenyans
What we can learn from Ethiopian running culture – written by an anthropologist and 2:20 marathon runner who trained with the Ethiopians.
‘Ethiopia is a place where I have been told that energy is controlled by angels and demons and where witchdoctors can help you to acquire another runner’s power. It is a place where an anonymous runner in the forest told me, miming an imaginary scoreboard and with a completely straight face, that he had dreamt that he would run 10km in 25 minutes. It is a place where they tell me that the air at Mount Entoto will transform me into a 2.08 marathon runner. It is a place, in short, of wisdom and magic, where dreaming is still very much alive.’
Why does it make sense to Ethiopian runners to get up at 3am to run up and down a hill? Who would choose to train on almost impossibly steep and rocky terrain, in hyena territory? And how come Ethiopian men hold six of the top ten fastest marathon times ever?
Michael Crawley spent fifteen months in Ethiopia training alongside (and sometimes a fair way behind) runners at all levels of the sport, from night watchmen hoping to change their lives to world class marathon runners, in order to answer these questions.
Follow him into the forest as he attempts to keep up and get to the heart of their success. C 2020 Michael Crawley P 2020 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC"
"Abraham Lincoln: he brought freedom to the slaves, and held the Union together during the Civil War. His profound and poetic speeches are famous around the world, evidence of the greatness of American’s most beloved leader.
But did you know that the sixteenth president of the United States was also a backwoods hillbilly from America’s western frontier, with a Kentucky accent so thick you could cut it? Or that he liked wrestling matches, dirty jokes, and had a reputation for telling hilarious, R-rated stories that weren’t suitable for mixed company?
From his childhood working as a virtual slave for an abusive father, to sailing a river raft to New Orleans, to the Illinois General Assembly, Congress, and the White House, the story of Abraham Lincoln’s life is the story of America. He mourned the deaths of almost everyone he loved, endured marriage to a wife whose mental health issues made her a domestic abuser, and lost more elections than he won. But Abraham Lincoln believed in one thing above all: that everyone deserved a fair shot at the American dream.
Why did John Wilkes Booth really shoot Abraham Lincoln? The truth is as shocking now as it was in 1865."
"Who was George Washington? You probably know him as the first president of the United States, the commander of the Continental army who led American farmers and innkeepers in a victorious eight-year war against the British. But where did he get his military experience? Why was picked to take command of the army? Why was he the only American president ever to be elected unanimously (twice!), and did he really chop down that cherry tree as a kid?
In this book entitled George Washington: First Guardian of American Liberty by author Michael Crawley, you'll follow the course of George Washington's life, from his birth at Ferry Farm in Virginia in 1732, to his death at his Mount Vernon estate in 1799. You'll learn how his early fame as a hero of the French and Indian War, and his illustrious marriage to a wealthy widow, led to this farm boy becoming one of the most important men in Virginia, a delegate at the Continental Congress where the Founders of America gathered to decide the nation's fate.
The first guardian of American liberty looks serene in his portraits, but he didn't always rise above the fray. Washington fought for what he believed in, and his political convictions shocked contemporaries like Thomas Jefferson. Do you know what kind of country George Washington wanted America to be?"
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