Splash!: 10,000 Years of Swimming

Enjoyed reading this book about the history of swimming. Presented me with lots of information I was unaware of.

Splash! Water on the BrainDo you know what it’s like to stand at the edge of a pool, knowing that the water is cold, really cold, and it will hurt and shock and goose-bump you, until it doesn’t and then you love it, and later get out and say “wow, that was refreshing”, and everyone thinks you are lying because your lips are blue, but you weren’t, it really WAS refreshing, and you not only went swimming, you cooled yourself down to the marrow, and feel clean and pure and great? I do.But Howard Means does NOT know even a nano-second of such hesitation. He jumps into a superb history of the human art, sport and pastime of swimming with the abandon of an eight-year-old leaping from the high board. But with a good deal more erudition, finesse, and style. If writing books about swimming were an Olympic event, this is a perfect 10.0.Means takes as his starting point the YEAR ZERO of human swimming: some oasis in Egypt seems to be the site where humans first deliberately swam, as opposed to bathing, falling in, or drowning. The sport is born in glory and seems a celebration of both the human body as well a technique for getting from here to there by water. For all sorts of reasons (modesty; rise of Christian religions, various plagues, changing notions of hygiene), swimming goes out of fashion during the Dark (and presumably Dry) Ages, but re-emerges in the Renaissance. And then, by turns, emerges as the sport, social phenomenon, and way of experiencing both tame and wild places that it is today.Means tells all this with wit, scholarship, and charm. In fact, the conventional trope of scholarship is nicely inverted (like a half-gainer), as Means uses the footnotes to tell a funny story, digress as one would with a real person, or mention the telling anecdote from his own pretty-distinguished-but-no-Johnny-Weissmuller swimming biography. It is a rare book where one should read the footnotes first, but this is that book!The book covers the waterfront: issues of health, race, gender (much attention is paid to the generally overlooked achievements of competitive women swimmers), sex/sexiness, beach culture, pool culture, athleticism, and the institutionalization of the sport all get thoughtful, respectful, engaging attention. In particular, he recounts the fate of once-ubiquitous municipal pools during the dark days of segregation, and the rise of the backyard pool as essentially a way to protract that segregation. This is history – capturing the profound in the ordinary -- at its best.Means is great company: he knows a lot, can tell it in a way that makes you want to hear more, and contextualize it in a way that reminds you that culture and the historical moment informs so much of what we do, or don’t do.Ok, it never works out to hesitate at the edge. Just do it, jump in. Read this book. You will be glad you did. Your mind, body and soul will be refreshed.

If you have ever been a competitive swimmer or just really enjoy swimming definitely read this book! It is so cool to read about how the art of swimming has been developed and used in so many ways - really makes you value swimming.

Swimming is not my sport but the stories and historical details in this book made it an enjoyable read. Lots of great pop culture references too - like Johnny Weismuller, for you Tarzan fans. Well worth it!