To the Limit cover art

To the Limit

The Meaning of Endurance from Mexico to the Himalayas

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

To the Limit

By: Michael Crawley
Narrated by: Raj Ghatak
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £13.83

Buy Now for £13.83

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.©2024 Michael Crawley (P)2024 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Anthropology Running & Jogging Social Sciences Sociology of Sports
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c

Critic reviews

Michael Crawley gives runners a unique and illuminating gift: to see themselves through the eyes of a trained anthropologist. The result is a fascinating and multilayered exploration of what it means to endure
Entertaining and fascinating
An immersive investigation into the world of endurance and the people and cultures who do it
I'm loving it ... packed full of brilliant discussions
engaging... [endurance sport] comes to lyrical life in Michael Crawley's evocations
excellent
All stars
Most relevant
Dr. Crawley’s books straddle a fine line that’s hard to get right: they introduce academic research and concepts into popular conversation in a way that is accessible and clear without dumbing them down. I learnt an enormous amount reading this; plus, his first-hand experiences in the world of endurance training will captivate those of us for whom reading about it is as close as we’d like to get to it. This was a fantastic read for anyone interested in endurance training, the anthropology of sport, and general curious miscellany from the world of push-yourself-to-the-limit athletics.

Excellent popular anthropology text

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.