Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship

Published by Oxford University Press, 2004
Edited with an introduction and notes

A startling amalgam of Zulu war-cry and imperial and urban myth, of borrowed tips on health and hygiene, and object lessons in woodcraft, Robert Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys (1908) is the original blueprint and ‘self-instructor’ of the Boy Scout Movement. An all-time bestseller in the English-speaking world, second only to the Bible, this primer of ‘yarns and pictures’ constitutes probably the most influential manual for youth ever published. Yet the book is at the same time a roughly composed hodge-podge of jingoist lore and tracker legend, padded with lengthy quotations from adventure fiction and B-P’s own autobiography, and seamed through with the multiple anxieties of its time: fears of degeneration, concerns about masculinity and self-restraint, invasion paranoia.

Elleke Boehmer’s edition of Scouting for Boys is the first to reprint the original text and illustrations, and her fine introduction investigates a book that has been cited as an authority by militarists and pacifists, capitalists and environmentalists alike.

Reviews

‘A gripping read’
The Oldie

‘A gem of a contemporary source’
Living History

Read more »

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.