Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship (Oxford World's Classics) - Hardcover

Baden-Powell, Robert

4.25

886 ratings by Goodreads

9780192805478: Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship (Oxford World's Classics)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0192805479 ISBN 13: 9780192805478

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2004

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A startling amalgam of Zulu war-cry and Sherlock Holmes, of practical tips on health and hygiene and object lessons in woodcraft, Scouting for Boys (1908) is the original blueprint and inspiration for the Boy Scout Movement. An all-time bestseller in the English-speaking world, second in its heyday only to the Bible, it is one of the most influential manuals for youth ever published, known and loved around the world.
Including all of Baden-Powell's original illustrations, this new critical edition of Scouting for Boys serves up a wonderful hodge-podge of true crime stories, stern moralizing, stock adventure tales, natural history, first-aid tips, advice on observation and tracking, and much more. Readers will find a roughly composed pastiche of jingoist lore and tracker legend, padded with lengthy quotations from adventure fiction--from Rudyard Kipling and James Fenimore Cooper, to Alexander Dumas and Arthur Conan Doyle--and seamed through with the multiple anxieties of its time: fears of degeneration ("the fall of the Roman empire was due to bad citizenship") and a constant worry over imminent war. Alongside practical instructions on how to light fires, build a boat, or stalk animals (or men), it includes sections on chivalry, self-discipline, self-improvement, and citizenship. Indeed, the book brims with Baden-Powell's philosophy of life, one that replaces self with service, puts country before the individual, and duty above all. The introduction by Elleke Boehmer illuminates the book's maverick complexity and her notes clarify obscure references.
Though almost a century old, Scouting for Boys continues to fascinate, surprise, and motivate readers today. It will delight anyone interested in popular culture, Victorian history, and literature for children.

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About the Author:

Elleke Boehmer is Professor of Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature at Nottingham Trent University. She is the author of many books and articles on postcolonial writing and theory. She has also written short stories and three novels, most recently Bloodlines.

Review:

"Scouting for Boys was written in the spirit of Peter Pan and Kipling's Kim; the games and plays and campfire stories are full of good ideas and good fun. The chapters on tracking, woodcraft, camp life and chivalry are full of simple (sometimes lifesaving) bits of practical information and exercises that teach children how to be observant, courteous and innovative."--Los Angeles Times

"Reissued for the first time...the original Scouting for Boys includes plenty of quaint language and chuckle-worthy advice. But for all its anachronisms, Baden-Powell's blueprint for what became a worldwide movement remains strangely resonant with our own times."--U.S. News and World Report

"Baden Powell had charm and courage, and a knack with the young, and he could draw excellent freehand illustrations. All these qualities are evident in this best-selling manual of 1908, now cleverly reissued by Oxford University Press. It's one of the very few books of the twentieth century that actually led to the formation of a worldwide movement."--Christopher Hitchens, The Atlantic Monthly

"A fine and intriguing vision of threatened Anglo-American masculinity at the crisis and crest of empire. It's also a hoot."--Chicago Tribune

"A flash-frozen, perfectly preserved moment in time, effectively conveying the sense and character of the Edwardian era, rendered not only readable, but delivering a surprisingly pleasant kick through Baden-Powell's vivid, gee-whiz prose."--San Diego Union Tribune

"Edited, annotated and introduced by Elleke Boehmer, professor of colonial and post-colonial literature at Nottingham Trent University in England, 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

"The overall impression left by Scouting for Boys is, as it was intended to be, bracing. Through this book, untold millions of boys have been led to healthy and harmless fun, acquiring some solid moral and practical instruction along the way. It is easy to smile now at the book's author, at his enthusiasm for pastimes like pig-sticking and skirt-dancing, his snobbery and imperialism, his determined repression of his own sexuality, whatever it was. It is not so easy to discount his achievement. Baden-Powell was nominated for the 1939 Nobel Peace Prize. The matter fell through because of the war; but looking through the list of subsequent recipients of that award, I doubt there is even one who did as much good in the world as the author of Scouting for Boys."--New York Sun

"This new edition is a delight for fathers who once were or now have Boy Scouts, and a remarkable look into the mind of an unusual man and the culture that influenced him.... Baden-Powell's call for both boys (and girls) to be their best and 'do a good turn daily' remains compelling, and the stories, games, and skills he writes about are as stirring to the boyish soul as they were a century ago."--Book Page

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