On Holiday

Orvar Lofgren, Professor of European Ethnology at the University of Lund, Sweden, has written a dozen books. His best-known work is also in English: Culture Builders: A Historical Anthropology of Middle-Class Life (with Jonas Frykman, 1987).

"Offers acute, whimsical, self-reflexive histories of sight-seeing, walking, driving, cottage life, landscapes, postcards, getaways, nostalgias, and especially the sun-starved northern Europeans for the South." - James Clifford in Lingua Franca Book "Lofgren's decision to take our daydreams seriously, and to note how we try to translate them into reality given half a chance, is fruitful." - Times Literary Supplement "A history of that anti-history; a treatment of our collective annual fortnight away as a strange and fascinating parallel reality that runs year-round." - National Post "On Holiday is one of the most enjoyable books on travel published in recent years. Fundamentally, it is an insightful investigation of 'elsewhereness,' written with humor that in no way detracts from the author's serious scholarship. Lofgren traces the origins of tourism to 18th-century pioneers-seekers of knowledge, adventure, or difference-and describes how 'learning to be a tourist' has transformed the idea of 'leisure' from elite pursuit to global industry. In a study that ranges from Continental spas to wilderness trekking, there should be something for every reader." - O. Pi-Sunyer, Choice "Excellent...not just a valuable addition to the shelves of students of tourism but also an enjoyable and accessible read." - John Ghazvinian, The Nation "A fun book to read, witty and emotionally evocative without ever being sentimental or superficial. It focuses on the common experiences of tourism familiar to readers from any class or culture, and really enters the tourist imagination-in stark contrast to most other books I've read about tourism, which act like the tourists are some sort of exotic livestock." - Richard Wilk, author of Economies and Cultures "A pleasure to read. The author has accomplished the very difficult task of moving almost seamlessly from general observations to the specific, and from the observations of others through time to his personal experience." - Erve Chambers, editor of Tourism and Culture "Lofgren takes us down countless paths that we didn't know were there.... His interests seem wonderfully idiosyncratic. The issues that he deals with are thoroughly familiar, but the angle of his light is very new." - Stephen M. Fjellman, author of Vinyl Leaves