How the English Made the Alps.

by Jim Ring (London: John Murray, 2000; pp. 287. 19.99 [pounds sterling]).

Ring traces the history of British people shaping the perceptions of, and the activities performed in, the Alps. The author undoubtedly chose the single most important group of people-who in the past three centuries have had the most decisive cultural impact on Europe's largest mountain range. This in itself is nothing new and the book does not claim to make any fundamental new discoveries. The chronologically structured book essentially consists of a series of mini-biographies of British people who in some way or another dealt with the Alps. This includes writers, such as Byron, professors who …