What to Read Next: What It Means to Endure
Issue #362: featuring "To the Limit" and "The Worst Hard Time"
Happy Friday, readers!
Are you ready for the frigid cold this weekend? While most of the U.S. descends into polar temperatures, it seems like a good time to ask, “What does it mean to endure?” Two books I read last year explore that question, though in very different ways. Michael Crawley’s To the Limit highlights endurance sports and their athletes, particularly diving into what they can tell us about resilience, meaning, and community in the 21st century. Timothy Egan’s The Worst Hard Time, which won 2006’s National Book Award for non-fiction, offers readers a visceral glimpse of life during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
Let’s jump in.
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To the Limit by Michael Crawley
I have no interest in participating in endurance sports, but I’m always fascinated to learn about what drives those athletes to do crazy things. People who run the Barkley Marathons or climb 8K peaks are just built differently, aren’t they?
Michael Crawley, an anthropologist and endurance runner himself, set out to ask that very question: What is it that drives people and communities to do these wild feats of human endurance? What does endurance actually mean and what role do these sports play in the 21st century?
From the start, I really appreciated Crawley’s anthropological but highly accessible approach. He digs into the origins of endurance sports and debunks a lot of myths, most notably regarding the history and evolution of running.
The highlight, for me, was two-fold: Crawley wasted no time in scolding our hyper-trackable and optimized athletic culture, clearly showing how it degrades the experience on all levels. At the same time, he highlighted that one of the most beneficial aspects of any athletic endeavor is how it can bring people and communities together. Suffering alongside fellow travelers can be beneficial in a way that solo feats can’t match.
This 2024 release went largely unnoticed (at least in the bookish circles I’m part of), but To the Limit very much deserves a spot on any athlete’s TBR list. I had no expectations going into it and came away with a fresh understanding of resilience and endurance — especially regarding its community-building aspects.