"A scout must always be prepared at any moment to do his duty, and to face danger in order to help his fellow-men."
A startling amalgam of Zulu war-cry and imperial and urban myth, of borrowed tips on health and hygiene, and object lessons in woodcraft, Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys (1908) is the original blueprint and 'self-instructor' of the Boy Scout Movement. One of the all-time bestsellers in the English-speaking world, this primer of 'yarns and pictures' constitutes probably the most influential manual for youth ever published. Yet the book is at the same time a roughly composed hodge-podge of jingoist lore and tracker legend, padded with lengthy quotations from adventure fiction and Baden-Powell's own autobiography, and seamed through with the multiple anxieties of its time: fears of degeneration, concerns about masculinity and self-restraint, and invasion paranoia.
Elleke Boehmer's edition of Scouting for Boys reprints the original text and illustrations, and her fine introduction investigates a book that has been cited as an authority by militarists and pacifists, capitalists and environmentalists alike.
Arvustused
very good fun * Max Hastings, Sunday Telegraph * the value of Elleke Boehmer's well-annotated text of the original edition is to show us the anxieties, contradictions and excitements of the Boy Scout movement at its inception * Alan Hollinghurst, Guardian * Elleke Boehmer's erudite introduction makes you wish she would get around to writing a full-length biogaphy of the first Chief Scout * William Cook, New Statesman * this fascinating volume tells us a lot about Baden-Powell, his movement and even to some extent the particular point in time when scouting was born' * Washington Times * Baden-Powell's work is well worth reading and re-reading, and that researchers with various interests and theoretical persuasions may find in its pages a great deal of interesting and rewarding material. * Thomas Kullman, Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen * a gripping read * The Oldie *
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Note on the Text
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of Robert Baden-Powell
SCOUTING FOR BOYS
Appendix: Continence
Explanatory Notes
Index
Elleke Boehmer is the Professor of World Literature in English at the University of Oxford, and Director of the Oxford Life Writing Centre at Wolfson College. A founding figure in the field of colonial and postcolonial literary studies, she is the author, editor, or co-editor of over twenty books, including monographs and novels. Her monographs include Colonial and Postcolonial Literature (1995/2005), Stories of Women (2005), Indian Arrivals (winner ESSE 2015-16 prize), and Postcolonial Poetics (2018). Her novels include The Shouting in the Dark (long-listed Sunday Times prize, 2015), and Screens again the Sky (short-listed David Higham Prize 1990). Sharmilla and other Portraits is her 2010 volume of short stories. She is the General Editor of the Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures Series.
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