Pyne, Lydia. Postcards: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Social Network

Eurasians’ fears of water during the Middle Ages. Carr includes the infamous story of the downing of Frederick Barbarossa in 1190 while on a Crusade to the Holy Land. The sudden drowning of Barbarossa socked all of Europe to and further exacerbated Europeans’ fears of the water. The more popular story surrounding people’s apprehension to swim or engage with water during the time may fears of witches and witchcraft. In Medieval Europe, water served as a testing grounds for those accused of witchcraft. People—typically women—accused of witchcraft were thrown in water. If they float, they were then in fact a witch; if they drowned, then they were not. For centuries this would be the narrative of non-swimmers to justify their fears of the water. The increasing popularity of swimming among progressive young intellectuals would shift this perspective as it soon captivated the attention of the upper and middle classes. The theme of class and its inextricable link to swimming is one that Carr carries through the entire book. Despite fears of water linked to drowning, religion, or matters of indecency, Carr suggests that since the Iron Age, elites had a keen interest in learning how to swim. When Greeks and Romans first learned how to swim, they attempted to emulate the sophistication of the Egyptians. By the sixteenth century, swimming remained popular among the elite classes. Despite stories and anecdotes of deaths by drowning that occurred in prestigious American Universities and elite circles, swimming became a fad for young progressive intellectuals. Part in parcel with the rise of middle-class culture, publications and manuals teaching young men became popular among younger generations in Europe and North America. By the nineteenth century, however, middleclass conservatives learned how to swim not only as a leisure activity, but the health benefits that accompany it. Perhaps one of Carr’s most salient strengths is the ability to weave together the histories and cultures of different groups. Those familiar with the scholarship on swimming may be preview to other monographs such as Jeff Wiltse’s (Wiltse 2010) Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America and parts of Victoria Wolcott’s (Wolcott 2014) Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters: The Struggle over Segregated Recreation in America. While such works, including Carr’s, have delved into the use of water, particularly swimming pools, as a site of segregation, her discussion of minority groups’ dominance of the water equally serves as a source of empowerment. For centuries, while Europeans feared the waters and did not know how to swim, Africans, for example, continued to embrace it as part of their cultural fabric. What is interesting about Carr’s argument regarding swimmers and non-swimmers is the fact that it was the groups later enslaved by Europeans were in fact exceptional swimmers. In fact, it was not uncommon for Europeans to employ Africans to teach their children how to swim. Despite the fact Africans, Southeast Asians, and the people of the Americas possessed the knowledge and ability to swim, Europeans used that precise skill as an excuse to enslave them. In the United States and other areas of the world where segregation existed at some time, the water was a space that further segregated people. Shifting Currents is an important and welcome addition to the historiography of swimming. Carr critically assesses the complexities of swimmers and nonswimmers since ancient times. In essence, we get a deeper understanding about the cultural implications of why swimming is more popular in some parts of the world, why some people grow up to be swimmers and others do not, and why certain people continue to value or fear the water. Students (undergraduate and graduate, alike) and scholars interested in the history of sports, swimming, social history, class, race, public health, and world history will all find something interesting in this insightful monograph.