American Surfer

<p>The image of surfing is everywhere in American popular culture – films novels television shows magazines newspaper articles music and especially advertisements. In this book Kristin Lawler examines the surfer one of the most significant and enduring archetypes in American popular culture from its roots in ancient Hawaii to Waikiki beach at the dawn of the twentieth century continuing through Depression-era California cresting during the early sixties persistently present over the next three decades and now more globally popular than ever. Throughout Lawler sets the image of the surfer against the backdrop of the negative reactions to it by those groups responsible for enforcing the Puritan discipline – pro-work anti-spontaneity – on which capital depends and thereby offers a fresh take on contemporary discussions of the relationship between commercial culture and counterculture and between counterculture and capitalism.</p>