Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Pedestrianism: When Watching People Walk Was America's Favorite Spectator Sport

Rate this book
Strange as it sounds, during the 1870s and 1880s, America's most popular spectator sport wasn't baseball, boxing, or horseracing—it was competitive walking. Inside sold-out arenas, competitors walked around dirt tracks almost nonstop for six straight days (never on Sunday), risking their health and sanity to see who could walk the farthest—500 miles, then 520 miles, and 565 miles! These walking matches were as talked about as the weather, the details reported from coast to coast.This long-forgotten sport, known as pedestrianism, spawned America's first celebrity athletes and opened doors for immigrants, African Americans, and women. The top pedestrians earned a fortune in prize money and endorsement deals. But along with the excitement came the inevitable scandals, charges of doping—coca leaves!—and insider gambling. It even spawned a riot in 1879 when too many fans showed up at New York's Gilmore's Garden, later renamed Madison Square Garden, and were denied entry to a widely publicized showdown. When Watching People Walk Was America's Favorite Spectator Sport chronicles competitive walking's peculiar appeal and popularity, its rapid demise, and its enduring influence, and how pedestrianism marked the beginning of modern spectator sports in the United States.

291 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2014

9 people are currently reading
1207 people want to read

About the author

Matthew Algeo

15 books118 followers
When he's not writing his own biography in the third person, Matthew Algeo writes about unusual and interesting events in American history.

He is also a journalist who has reported from four continents.

In addition to reporting and writing, Algeo has worked as a convenience store clerk, a Halloween costume salesman, and a hot dog vendor in a traveling circus. Now he is the morning host at Kansas Public Radio.

He lives in Lawrence, Kansas, with is wife, Allyson, and daughter, Zaya.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
91 (29%)
4 stars
132 (43%)
3 stars
70 (22%)
2 stars
10 (3%)
1 star
2 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
Profile Image for Jason.
111 reviews10 followers
December 18, 2014
Algeo’s book almost seems like a hoax: the most popular spectator sport in the United States (and to some extent England) in the second half of the 19th century was watching people walk around a track for six days straight—often raking up more than 500 miles each! And to keep themselves “stimulated” these athletes would usually drink champagne…sometimes lots of it. You’ve got to be kidding me, right? But it’s true. In fact, professional pedestrians like Dan O’Leary, Edward Payson Weston, and Frank Hart (one of the first great African-American athletes) were so popular that they were featured on trading cards long before the baseball greats who would popularize America’s pastime. This is one of the most enlightening books about 19th-century American culture and sport in general that I’ve ever read.
Profile Image for Art.
551 reviews18 followers
July 22, 2016
Update of Wednesday, April 23: A nineteen-minute conversation with Matthew Algeo on Milwaukee Pubic Radio begins at 15:18. http://wuwm.com/post/tuesday-lake-eff....

Review of March 27: Four and a half stars. Before baseball and bicycling, people in the 1870s and '80s watched other people walk from city to city or in competition in exposition halls and hippodromes. The first of these was the gigantic International Exposition Building, which stood for twenty-one years — built after The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 then demolished before the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The Art Institute of Chicago building, from that World's Fair, stands on the site today.

By pedestrianism, we mean thin fast-walking guys, although a few women, known as pedestriennes, also competed. Dan O'Leary, born in Ireland, settled in Chicago in 1868, the same spring that my Irish great-grandparents moved from Wisconsin to Chicago. Dan O'Leary achievements, as a champion pedestrian, opened doors for Irish immigrants and helped them gain acceptance in the city.

Matthew Algeo describes well the rise and fall of pedestrianism with the social forces at play. With newfound leisure time, people paid to watch and cheer competitive walking matches. The fad came to an end as baseball and bicycle races proved more interesting to watch. Gilbert and Sullivan's successful and revolutionary early comic operas also became popular at this time. Convenient streetcars attracted many riders. Pedestrians railed against the streetcars because the easy riding diverted walkers from a healthful, natural and vigorous habit.

The average human walking speed is three miles an hour. The current walking record: nine and a half miles an hour. My personal best, a couple of years ago, clocked at four and a half miles an hour.

Fascinating, fun and a quick read.

"If it shall have the effect to popularize among Americans that much neglected species of exercise, pedestrianism, it will be a wholesome sanitary result." — Semi-Weekly Wisconsin, Milwaukee, undated but probably 1870s

An excellent book on urban planning for pedestrians: Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time.
Profile Image for Cheri.
475 reviews20 followers
October 16, 2017
I have seen the walking races in the Olympics, but I never knew that pedestrianism was at one time the biggest spectator sport in the US and Great Britain. The first trading cards were of pedestrians, not baseball players, and the names of leading pedestrians were household words. African-Americans and white Americans competed together (before Plessy vs. Ferguson). The author integrates the events that led to the rise and fall of this sport into his story of grueling competitions and the adventures of the winning athletes. It was a compelling read, even for someone like me who hates to watch sports.
Profile Image for Conner.
138 reviews
May 14, 2025
Interesting book. I really enjoy how this author takes random historical tidbits and turns them into a well-written adventure.

Competitive walking or “pedestrianism” was a tremendously popular sport from about 1880-1900. It drew tens of thousands of fans while competitors walked for 6 days straight, some surpassing 600 miles. Earnings reached into the hundreds of thousands of dollars per event and the sport even churned out some of the first tobacco trading cards.
Profile Image for Emily.
1,267 reviews21 followers
April 13, 2017
This was a fun read! I never would have guessed this sport was as popular as it was. Reading recaps of matches got a bit tiresome towards the end, but there were plenty of historical fun facts and quotes to keep the story going.
3 reviews
Read
April 6, 2014
Fascinating. I'd never heard of it.
Profile Image for Mary.
500 reviews
September 14, 2017
What a surprisingly fun and interesting read!
I like history, but often "historical" books are dreadfully dry and miss the personal, human element. Somehow, Matthew Algeo manages to write a historically INTERESTING book about (of all things) people walking in circles for periods of six -1000 days. I was truly drawn in to the stories of the "professional pedestrians", the fascination...indeed, mania....of the crowds following them, the period in which this sport was king.
It's a fast little book about fast walking people who also spend their hard won fortunes...fast.
Try it!
(I'm guessing it would be a good treadmill book. Just sayin'...."
Thanks, Goodreads, for another giveaway that will be recommended and shared far and wide from my shelf!
Profile Image for Al.
478 reviews4 followers
August 30, 2014
I saw this book on the "new releases" shelf and couldn't resist it (Actually all of Algeo's books sound fascinating). Though, we often think of the late 19th Century with baseball, boxing and horse racing, for a brief time, marathon walking was the country's most popular sport. President Chester Arthur was a fan.

This book just blew me away. This is a part of history and sports history that I didn't know about. These are the types of books that I love that talk about the popular culture of an era.

It started with a failed bet and turned into a competitive sport. The book promises a lot of modern parallels and claims that competitive walking birthed everything from NASCAR style sponsorship to sports radio. It sounds like hyperbole (One fact was that Britain was mired in a war in Iraq), but it's actually true.

One of the leading athletes was an Irish immigrant. Another was African-American (as in other books I have read, the post civil war era saw some civil rights advancements. It was the early part of the 21 st century that saw these taken away. People like Cap Anson (allegedly) had started to compete with black Americans and decided to work actively to stop that).

Another walker of note was female (These were very Conservative times, so she walked with a dress that went down to her ankles.) In fact, this highlights some of that Conservatism. Races were never held on Sundays. In fact, this being the dawn of sport (walking makes a lot of sense as a first sport) was because a mix of a change in Puritan attitude as immigrants moved in, as to a certain point, Americans felt the only thing they should do with their free time was work or pray; but also an effect of the Industrial Revolution.

It was a cheap sport and cheap entertainment which made it hugely popular. Most entertainments were only affordable to the rich. One of the other things that may have done it as far as diversion was the musicals of Gilbert & Sullivan (Which started in America as unauthorized performances. The illegal downloading of the day. Home-produced musicals are killing music).

There is of course doping accusations. In this case, coca leafs or brandy and champagne (alcohol then considered a stimulant.

The competitors are fascinating, and it really is much more than a sports book.

It ended almost as quickly as it began, and it's interesting that the phenomenon ended after about 20 years, after being so huge that it once caused riots at (an early incarnation of) Madison Square Garden.

Mild SPOILER on what killed it. I don't think it will spoil it, but in case

A really great read and certainly recommend to anyone who likes obscure pop culture moments or are interested in 1870s/80s life.
Profile Image for Cindie.
59 reviews7 followers
July 29, 2014
As much as I’m a sports fanatic, I don’t know much about the history of sports in America before baseball and college football really became popular. Pedestrianism chronicles the history of one of the country’s earliest (socially acceptable) spectator sports.

Pedestrianism was a sport of endurance and pushing yourself to the limit. “Athletes” were fairly common men and women who began creating challenges for themselves. betting that they could walk a mile an hour for a hundred consecutive hours, etc. Eventually these transformed into elaborate six-day races in arenas, where the crowds stayed until all hours of the morning just to watch men walk around in circles (insert “drive around in cars” and I suppose that’s the allure of NASCAR!). Whether one had money on the line or not, watching the athletes push their bodies to the limit, and sometimes past the limit, seemed to be an unsavory way to pass the time, but as the middle and lower-classes had more free time to spend, they chose to use it in this way.

The most storied pedestrians were truly characters, from Edward Peyson Weston‘s ever-present riding crop to Daniel O’Leary’s fickle relationship with his native Ireland, and Algeo does a bang-up job of bringing them to life on the pages. As a former Madison Square Garden intern, I loved reading about the races that took place in the former incarnations of the building, and the interesting people that walked in them. Ultimately the sport lost it’s novelty and gave way to boxing and baseball, but the “big guys” (namely Weston and O’Leary) continued to challenge themselves long past its prime. The book felt like it ended almost suddenly, but not really: the sport’s decline was equally sudden, if not more so. At least we were treated to an epilogue (I love a good epilogue!).

Pedestrianism is a quick read in comparison to the 800-page volumes I’ve been reading lately, but it’s still full of interesting little details and illustrations. Algeo’s writing is approachable and informative, and I’m looking forward to reading some of his other books.
Profile Image for Nick Klagge.
865 reviews77 followers
January 2, 2015
This is an oddball book that I enjoyed more than I expected to. The title describes it pretty clearly. As it turns out, in the second half of the eighteenth century, long-distance walking really did have a golden era as a wildly popular spectator sport, both in the USA and the UK. The events tended to be six-day-long races in which contestants would cover 500 or more miles, usually on a very short track, say 1/6 mile or less. These distances were fairly impressive to me, as someone reasonably conversant in the world of modern ultrarunning. Today, 100-mile races are rare but seem widely considered to be peak challenges for ultrarunners (such as the Western States 100). For comparison, the WS100 course record is a bit under 15 hours. It is pretty impressive to me that, long before modern training regimens, nutrition, etc., these athletes were able to cover that distance 5 times in the span of 6 days. Of course, the pedestrian tracks were far less challenging terrain-wise than the WS100 course, so it is definitely apples-to-oranges, but I was still pretty impressed. On the other hand, the nature of the event was completely different. Today's ultras are very far from mass spectacle, and skew more toward personal physical and mental challenge for the participants, whereas the pedestrian races were very much big business.

One interesting theme in the book is how Americans during this era were basically starving for any kind of mass entertainment, so that even something as basically boring as watching people walk in circles for days on end could and did draw huge crowds. Thanks to industrialization, it was the first era in which the masses had some leisure time and disposable income, however meager. The author contends that the heyday of pedestrianism basically ended when baseball became popular, and even as a fan of ultrarunning, I'd say that was an improvement.
Profile Image for Claire.
133 reviews9 followers
May 18, 2014
I’m going to be honest. I didn’t get this book (for free through Goodreads First Reads) because I had an extreme interest in pedestrianism – I’m not really a sports person. I got this book because I wanted to know how athletes could walk for six straight days with no breaks (spoiler: they don’t). Despite that terrible reason for starting a book, Pedestrianism blew me away.

Unlike many nonfiction books you read, Pedestrianism is easy to read but doesn’t talk down to you. Matthew Algeo brings the athletes alive, and you would not believe how interesting pedestrianism is. Moreover, the book covers so much more than *just* pedestrianism, taking you through the world at the time (that time being 1870s-early 1900s). You learn not just about pedestrianism, but about the creation of other sports: boxing, cycling, and baseball. Algeo also takes you through the British/American pedestrianism rivalry, and the big names in pedestrianism. Dan O’Leary, Edward Weston, Frank Hart (my personal favorite), and Charles Rowell (You will know these names once you’ve read the book and believe you me, you will have a favorite).

I have to commend this book for making sports interesting, and recommend to everyone, regardless of their level of sport interest (which again, I have none). Watching bedraggled men and women walk in circles for six days might not sound interesting, but reading about it sure is! (Which should be the subtitle of the book)
Profile Image for Sarah.
318 reviews4 followers
July 1, 2014
Delightful book, charmingly written, about an understudied and unknown topic. Highly recommend! I may be adding this to my sport history syllabus
Profile Image for Nick.
Author 5 books10 followers
December 28, 2014
I'm thoroughly impressed by the book. I had no idea this was ever part of America's history, but I feel like I've learned a lot about the subject.
Profile Image for Scommesseit.
2 reviews
September 23, 2023
Cosa cercano gli appassionati di scommesse sportive?

Gli appassionati di scommesse sportive cercano principalmente di scommettere su partite e competizioni sportive diverse e interessanti. In questa pagina ti offriamo una guida completa che ti porterà ai migliori bookmaker online in Italia nel 2023, nonché ai loro bonus e offerte! Gli appassionati dei cosiddetti sport tradizionali, ai quali siamo abituati, prevalgono, ma si allarga anche la cerchia di chi vuole qualcos'altro. Ecco perché gli operatori di scommesse sportive si rivolgono sempre più agli sport meno conosciuti, come il futsal, gli sport virtuali, il trotto e perfino gli e-sport. Ecco perché i bookmaker li includono nei loro portafogli. Gli argomenti più importanti nella scelta di un bookmaker includono bonus, moltiplicatori, partite dal vivo, licenza italiana, possibilità di contattare rapidamente il bookmaker, requisiti di deposito, metodi di deposito e pagamento delle vincite, ecc.



Bookmaker e casinò autorizzati



Qui elenchiamo i siti che hanno una licenza valida (qui) per le scommesse sportive online e le corse di cavalli e cani. Sono tra i più grandi e popolari organizzatori di giochi d'azzardo nel nostro Paese. Alcuni di loro hanno anche estese reti di gioco d'azzardo terrestri. La maggior parte degli operatori di gioco d'azzardo, oltre alla licenza per le scommesse sportive, possiede anche una licenza per i giochi di casinò online. Una licenza è per "Totalizzatore sportivo ungherese". Le restanti aziende sono private. In italiano è consentito piazzare scommesse sportive con operatori di gioco d'azzardo non autorizzati, poiché sono costantemente controllati e l'accesso è limitato. Entro il 2020, molti appassionati di scommesse sportive si saranno abituati a piazzare scommesse presso i bookmaker tradizionali.



Opportunità



Diversi operatori di gioco d'azzardo offrono quote diverse. Tuttavia, il confronto mostra che le differenze non sono così grandi. Tuttavia, gli esperti sottolineano che alcuni dei bookmaker autorizzati nel paese offrono le quote più alte. Tuttavia, queste differenze possono diventare significative con scommesse più grandi e combinazioni diverse.





Bonus



A questo proposito, tutti i bookmaker attivi nel nostro Paese cercano di offrire vari bonus ai propri clienti. Ciò è particolarmente vero per i bonus per i nuovi clienti. Puoi ottenerne uno quando registri un nuovo account. Tuttavia, dovresti controllare i termini e le condizioni specifici di questi bonus poiché di solito comportano requisiti come il metodo di deposito scelto, il deposito minimo di adesione, ecc. I bonus incondizionati sono molto rari. Per utilizzare i bonus forniti, è necessario inserire il codice corrispondente o premere un pulsante accanto al bonus. Sono disponibili bonus aggiuntivi, ad esempio per ricaricare il conto, bonus per clienti fedeli al di sopra di determinati importi, bonus per determinati tornei sportivi, a volte bonus senza deposito.



Requisiti per il deposito e il pagamento dei premi



Questo è un altro aspetto molto importante nella scelta di un bookmaker. Attualmente, tutti gli operatori di gioco stanno cercando di espandere i metodi di pagamento supportati per offrire ai propri clienti la massima comodità e scelta. Pertanto, la varietà di modi per effettuare transazioni finanziarie parte dai pagamenti bancari tradizionali fino ai portafogli mobili per i pagamenti istantanei. Tuttavia, quando si sceglie un metodo di pagamento, vale la pena prestare attenzione alle condizioni specifiche, poiché oltre al fatto che alcuni bonus non possono essere richiesti con esso, potrebbero esserci condizioni aggiuntive per il pagamento dei premi. Il modo più semplice è contattare i bookmaker che dispongono anche di sale da casinò tradizionali, dove è possibile anche il pagamento in contanti. Tuttavia, in questa fase, nella complessa situazione epidemiologica in cui ci troviamo, ciò è più difficile da realizzare. Pagare con un portafoglio mobile è la prossima alternativa più veloce. L'utilizzo di una carta di debito o di credito richiederà più tempo per elaborare la transazione. Il bonifico bancario è il più lento e i pagamenti vengono elaborati entro una settimana.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Amory Ross.
62 reviews
May 23, 2018
I missed a majority of the interview with Matthew Algeo on NPR, so I decided to grab the book and fill in the rest. The subject of pedestrianism is likely laughed at compared to today's athletic arenas, but a nagging question solidified my desire to purchase the book. This topic is wonderfully presented by Mr. Algeo, and there is much to learn about the infancy of sports.

As a cyclist, I am keenly interested in post-Civil War era athletic achievements. The reason is, among other things, the Great Migration to cities. Cyclign eventually took hold only to be dethroned by the automobile as a sporting event. My question was, "What did cycling dethrone?" The book Pedestrianism answers this question by presenting some of the major walkers after the American Civil War.

Conceived on a bet about Abraham Lincoln, pedestrianism likely spawned the idea of great human feats. While our era has witnessed relatively few human achievements, the post-Civil War time was probably an excited time to witness such feats. Humans walking hundreds of miles, people cycling around the world, human's first flight, the introduction of automobiles and the various speed barriers, and countless others were read about in the newspapers of the time. All I can really point to is Felix Baumgartner's immense sky dive from a balloon. It all had to start somewhere, and it started with walking immense distances.

Mr. Agleo talks about the Six Day events witnessed by many during the Pedestrianism era. Respecting the Blue Laws, events never went into Sundays. Here is where track cycling gets their own Six Day events. Here is also where American track cycling copied indoor tracks such as the Madison Square Garden. Both cultures raked in immense sums of money while the assumed stars of baseball made fractions. Imagine watching groups of humans walk laps around the Madison Square Garden and being entertained. Compared to today's sporting venues, fans would be in an uproar to be forced to watch pedestrianism.

I recommend this book based on the fact it colors the picture between America's farming lifestyle and the Great Migration to the cities pre-World War I. It's that time in history when sports as career was just beginning to be considered. The pedestrians paved the way for the cyclists who were surpassed by the auto racers, a demographic no doubt still in command. Meanwhile baseball was struggling to make it into the market as an alternative to week-long walking races. Sure the topic is about people walking far, but don't let that fool you. This is a great area to learn about and connect the past to the present.
Author 2 books7 followers
February 13, 2022
Concise, witty, and entertaining, this book gives long-time walking the short-form summary it deserves. Algeo does a great job at contextualizing the fast rise, and even faster fall, of competitive pedestrianism in the US and UK in the later decades of the 19th Century. There aren't all that many books about the craze and its practitioners, but this is the best one I've found so far. I feel like there should be a movie about it, but then again, as the book points out more than once, it's just not all that exciting watching a group of people walk in circles until they collapse, regardless of how colorfully they are attired or what the band in the background is playing. Still, this is a fun study of an amazing, yet largely forgotten, period of America's sporting history.
Profile Image for Bill Sleeman.
790 reviews10 followers
June 18, 2017

Pedestrianism: when watching people walk was America’s favorite pastime by Matthew Algeo was something I picked up on a lark as I walked past it at my local public library but it proved to be a fun read. Interesting to learn how the sport developed, became central to people’s idea of entertainment and then rapidly faded from view. The walking race is one of my favorite events to watch (as briefly televised as it is) at the Olympics and the background here about how walking as a sport developed was pretty interesting. A good read for track and field fans, intriguing.

Profile Image for Heidi.
317 reviews
May 30, 2018
While indexing things in my library's historical collection I found a handbill for a walking match. My first thought was here is a sport for me. :) But I was curious, so I Googled walking matches and found an article about this book. It is a perfect introduction. It focuses on a few stars of the sport while going over the short history of Pedestrianism. Just enough information to give you a taste of the sport and the times when it flourished. I wasn't sure it would be something I would read cover to cover, but actually enjoyed it very much.
Profile Image for Darnell.
1,461 reviews
February 20, 2018
The topic is just light fun, but I can't really think of anything I would have wanted it to do differently. It's aware of the quirkiness of the subject matter without trivializing it, has a balanced amount of gritty detail, and it covers the subject from every relevant angle.

So five stars, I guess. If you want to do something other than learn about pedestrianism, this is not the book for you, but if you do...
Profile Image for Justin.
375 reviews7 followers
February 21, 2018
I would give this book 4.5 stars if I could. This reads like a podcast in book form, which is unsurprising since the author writes podcasts. At the end of the day it might be a bit two-dimensional, but this is one of the best books about "old, weird America" that I have ever read. It succeeds grandly in transporting the reader into the mindset of a very different era. What a funny sport! It all made sense, at the time.
Profile Image for Julie.
261 reviews
March 3, 2019
4.5 stars - this was actually a pretty entertaining read and a topic I had no idea was actually a real part of our history.
Frank Hart or Madame Anderson are both pretty inspirational and that they are basically unknown is amazing.
I could easily see this as a documentary or something; I picked this book out just as something quirky to read but really ended up enjoying it and learned a lot!
Profile Image for Nate Hendrix.
1,149 reviews7 followers
June 16, 2023
Here is a perfect example of why I love nonfiction. The sport of walking, who would write, much less read a book about people walking? It was great, a real insight into the lives of the common person between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the century. For a time walking was bigger than baseball and boxing(it was against the law).
161 reviews2 followers
December 3, 2021
While this was entertaining and informative, it could have been condensed into a book about half to three-quarters of its size which was short to begin with. Having said that, however, the feats of this race walkers was somewhat amazing.
Profile Image for Diane.
87 reviews
October 13, 2024
Surprisingly Entertaining

I loved this book. I’m not typically one for non-fiction, but I found this book to be entertaining as well as informative. The subject matter was completely new to me as I had never heard of pedestrianism before. Well worth the read!
Profile Image for Bill Greer.
Author 3 books2 followers
May 24, 2020
Who'd ever have guessed spectators went to Madison Square Garden to watch people walk in circles for days?
Profile Image for Jackie.
504 reviews19 followers
August 20, 2020
People used to be super into competitive walking. Who knew?
Profile Image for Jason Mather.
128 reviews
June 4, 2021
What a terrific read on a topic that I feared might be too dry to enjoy.
Highly recommend.
Profile Image for Claire Middleton.
211 reviews1 follower
October 21, 2023
I also had to read this for my history class but I thought it was kind of funny. And ridiculous. For a history book pretty good. People used to walk hundreds of miles in the span of weeks?? SO silly
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.