Were the First People Swimmers?
Were the First People Swimmers?

Author: Judy Kaul

Publisher:

Published: 2013-11-28

Total Pages: 46

ISBN-13: 9781492850199

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Your child asks, “Where did we come from?” and you wish you had a scientific explanation of human evolution to answer the question. Or you're grown up and you're still curious.How did our species become so different from the other great apes, or for that matter, from other mammals? More than a century and a half after Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published, the mystery of the “missing link” is still unresolved. Scientists agree on approximately when the split occurred between humans and our last common ancestors, but not how.Were the First People Swimmers? introduces the reader to an elegant, rigorous theory by Welsh writer Elaine Morgan, based on a hypothesis by marine biologist Alister Hardy, that our early Homo sapien ancestors evolved through natural selection in water. The theory became known as the Aquatic Ape Theory or “AAT.” Morgan wrote six books on human evolution and the theory.Were the First People Swimmers? guides you, with elementary text and playful illustrations, through empirical evidence that explains how the first humans could have started talking, lost their ability to run on all four legs, lost their fur, and acquired subcutaneous fat.Elaine Morgan provided ideas and feedback in the conception and planning of Were the First People Swimmers? The book encourages observation of nature, critical thinking and inter-generational learning.

Splash!
Splash!

Author: Howard Means

Publisher: Hachette Books

Published: 2020-06-02

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 0306845644

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Choose a stroke and get paddling through the human history of swimming! From man's first recorded dip into what's now the driest spot on earth to the splashing, sparkling pool party in your backyard, humans have been getting wet for 10,000 years. And for most of modern history, swimming has caused a ripple that touches us all--the heroes and the ordinary folk; the real and the mythic. Splash! dives into Egypt, winds through ancient Greece and Rome, flows mostly underground through the Dark and Middle Ages (at least in Europe), and then reemerges in the wake of the Renaissance before taking its final lap at today's Olympic games. Along the way, it kicks away the idea that swimming is just about moving through water, about speed or great feats of aquatic endurance, and shows you how much more it can be. Its history offers a multi-tiered tour through religion, fashion, architecture, sanitation and public health, colonialism, segregation and integration, sexism, sexiness, guts, glory, and much, much more. Unique and compelling, Splash! sweeps across the whole of humankind's swimming history--and just like jumping into a pool on a hot summer's day, it has fun along the way.

Lido
Lido

Author: Christopher Beanland

Publisher: Batsford Books

Published: 2020-08-07

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1849946787

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A celebration of outdoor swimming – looking at the history, design and social aspect of pools. Few experiences can beat diving into a pool in the fresh air, swimming with blue skies above you. Whether it's a dip into a busy and bustling city pool on a sweltering summer day, or taking the plunge in icy waters, the lido provides a place of peace in a frenetic world. The book begins with a history of outdoor pools – their grand beginnings after the buttoned-up Victorian era, their falling popularity in the 20th century, and the newfound appreciation for the outdoor pool, or lido, and outdoor swimming in the 21st century. Journalist and architectural historian Christopher Beanland picks the very best of the outdoor pools around the world, including the Icebergs Pool on Bondi Beach, Australia; the 137m seawater pool in Vancouver, Canada; Siza's concrete sea pools in Porto, Portugal; the restored art deco pool in Saltdean, UK, and the pool at the Zollverein Coal Mines in Essen, Germany. The book also features lost lidos and the fascinating history behind the architecture of the pools, along with essays on swimming pools in art, and the importance of pools in Australia. In addition there are interviews with pool users around the globe about why they swim. The book is illustrated throughout with beautiful colour photography, as well as archive photography and advertising.

The Swimmers
The Swimmers

Author: Julie Otsuka

Publisher: Knopf

Published: 2022-02-22

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 0593321332

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NATIONAL BEST SELLER • From the best-selling, award-winning author of The Buddha in the Attic and When the Emperor Was Divine comes a novel about what happens to a group of obsessed recreational swimmers when a crack appears at the bottom of their local pool. This searing, intimate story of mothers and daughters—and the sorrows of implacable loss—is the most commanding and unforgettable work yet from a modern master. The swimmers are unknown to one another except through their private routines (slow lane, medium lane, fast lane) and the solace each takes in their morning or afternoon laps. But when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, they are cast out into an unforgiving world without comfort or relief. One of these swimmers is Alice, who is slowly losing her memory. For Alice, the pool was a final stand against the darkness of her encroaching dementia. Without the fellowship of other swimmers and the routine of her daily laps she is plunged into dislocation and chaos, swept into memories of her childhood and the Japanese American incarceration camp in which she spent the war. Alice's estranged daughter, reentering her mother's life too late, witnesses her stark and devastating decline.

Shifting Currents
Shifting Currents

Author: Karen Eva Carr

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2022-07-18

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 1789145775

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A deep dive into the history of aquatics that exposes centuries-old tensions of race, gender, and power at the root of many contemporary swimming controversies. Shifting Currents is an original and comprehensive history of swimming. It examines the tension that arose when non-swimming northerners met African and Southeast Asian swimmers. Using archaeological, textual, and art-historical sources, Karen Eva Carr shows how the water simultaneously attracted and repelled these northerners—swimming seemed uncanny, related to witchcraft and sin. Europeans used Africans’ and Native Americans’ swimming skills to justify enslaving them, but northerners also wanted to claim water’s power for themselves. They imagined that swimming would bring them health and demonstrate their scientific modernity. As Carr reveals, this unresolved tension still sexualizes women’s swimming and marginalizes Black and Indigenous swimmers today. Thus, the history of swimming offers a new lens through which to gain a clearer view of race, gender, and power on a centuries-long scale.

Swim
Swim

Author: Lynn Sherr

Publisher: Public Affairs

Published: 2012-04-03

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1610390466

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Explores the nature and appeal of swimming, from the history of the strokes to aspects of modern Olympic competition, as well as the author's personal experiences and milestones in the sport.

Contested Waters
Contested Waters

Author: Jeff Wiltse

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2009-11-30

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0807888982

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From nineteenth-century public baths to today's private backyard havens, swimming pools have long been a provocative symbol of American life. In this social and cultural history of swimming pools in the United States, Jeff Wiltse relates how, over the years, pools have served as asylums for the urban poor, leisure resorts for the masses, and private clubs for middle-class suburbanites. As sites of race riots, shrinking swimsuits, and conspicuous leisure, swimming pools reflect many of the tensions and transformations that have given rise to modern America.

Total Immersion
Total Immersion

Author: Terry Laughlin

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-03-13

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 1451688334

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Swim better—and enjoy every lap—with Total Immersion, a guide to improving your swimming from an expert with more than thirty years of experience in the water. Terry Laughlin, the world’s #1 authority on swimming success, has made his unique approach even easier for anyone to master. Whether you’re an accomplished swimmer or have always found swimming to be a struggle, Total Immersion will show you that it’s mindful fluid movement—not athletic ability—that will turn you into an efficient swimmer. This new edition of the bestselling Total Immersion features: -A thoughtfully choreographed series of skill drills—practiced in the mindful spirit of yoga—that can help anyone swim more enjoyably -A holistic approach to becoming one with the water and to developing a swimming style that’s always comfortable -Simple but thorough guidance on how to improve fitness and form -A complementary land-and-water program for achieving a strong and supple body at any age Based on more than thirty years of teaching, coaching, and research, Total Immersion has dramatically improved the physical and mental experience of swimming for thousands of people of all ages and abilities.

The Girl in the Lake
The Girl in the Lake

Author: India Hill Brown

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Published: 2022-01-04

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 1338678906

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For fans of Small Spaces, Doll Bones, and Mary Downing Hahn, a truly chilling (and historically inspired) ghost story from the talented author of The Forgotten Girl. Celeste knows she should be excited to spend two weeks at her grandparents' lake house with her brother, Owen, and their cousins Capri and Daisy, but she's not. Bugs, bad cell reception, and the dark waters of the lake... no thanks. On top of that, she just failed her swim test and hates being in the water—it's terrifying. But her grandparents are strong believers in their family knowing how to swim, especially having grown up during a time of segregation at public pools. And soon strange things start happening—the sound of footsteps overhead late at night. A flickering light in the attic window. And Celete's cousins start accusing her of pranking them when she's been no where near them! Things at the old house only get spookier until one evening when Celeste looks in the steamy mirror after a shower and sees her face, but twisted, different... Who is the girl in the mirror? And what does she want? Past and present mingle in this spine-tingling ghost story by award-winning author India Hill Brown.

Pool
Pool

Author: JiHyeon Lee

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Published: 2015-05-05

Total Pages: 57

ISBN-13: 1452150389

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What happens when two shy children meet at a very crowded pool? Dive in to find out! Deceptively simple, this masterful book tells a story of quiet moments and surprising encounters, and reminds us that friendship and imagination have no bounds.