Shopping All the Way to the Woods: How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America [Hardcover]

A fascinating history of the profitable paradox of the American outdoor experience: visiting nature first requires shopping
 
No escape to nature is complete without a trip to an outdoor recreational store or a browse through online offerings. This is the irony of the American outdoor experience: visiting wild spaces supposedly untouched by capitalism first requires shopping. With consumers spending billions of dollars on clothing and equipment each year as they seek out nature, the American outdoor sector grew over the past 150 years from a small collection of outfitters to an industry contributing more than 2 percent of the nation’s economic output.
 
Rachel S. Gross argues that this success was predicated not just on creating functional equipment but also on selling an authentic, anticommercial outdoor identity. In other words, shopping for the woods was also about being—or becoming—the right kind of person. Demonstrating that outdoor cultureiscommercial culture, Gross examines Americans’ journey toward outdoor expertise by tracing the development of the nascent outdoor goods industry, the influence of World War II on its growth, and the boom years of outdoor businesses.A fascinating history of the profitable paradox of the American outdoor experience: visiting nature first requires shopping“A fascinating and entertaining book about the history of outdoor retailers and their place in the outdoor industry, as well as an exploration of the development of the ‘outdoors person’ identity. . . . This is a unique look at the history of outdoor gear and clothing, and the larger symbolism of it all.”—goEast

“A serious presentation of the development of a distinctively American industry and the many, often curious and logically contradictory, social changes brought about by it. It is indeed a work that should be of interest to all who venture out into tlcu