In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist

by Pete Jordan

Overview

Pete Jordan, author of the wildly popular Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States, is back with a memoir that tells the story of his love affair with Amsterdam, the city of bikes, all the while unfolding an unknown history of the city's cycling, from the craze of the 1890s, through the Nazi occupation, to the bike-centric culture adored by the world today

Pete never planned to stay long in Amsterdam, just a semester. But he quickly falls in love with the city and soon his wife, Amy Joy, joins him. Together they explore every inch of their new home on two wheels, their rides a respite from the struggles that come with starting a new life in a new country. 

Weaving together personal anecdotes and details of the role that cycling has played throughout Dutch history, Pete Jordan’s In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist is a poignant and entertaining read.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061995200
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/16/2013
Series:	P.S.
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	184,988
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Pete Jordan is the author of the memoir Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States. Pete's work has been featured on public radio's This American Life and in the New York Times. He lives in Amsterdam.

Table of Contents

Authors Note ix

1 Even a Man from America Can See a Few Things: The Arrival 1

2 Lucky Few: The 1890s 17

3 Piggy Hunters: The Bike Thievery 35

4 King of the Street: The 1920s 53

5 It Made My Head Swim: The Elephants, Centaurs, Punks and Nuns 71

6 A Matter of Individual Expression: The Land of the Automobile vs. the Land of the Bicycle 95

7 Problem Children: The 1930s 115

8 Which One's the Wrench?: The Settling Down 145

9 We Were True Libertines: The First Two Years of the Occupation 157

10 Smash Your Bikes to Bits, Slice Your Tires to Pieces: The Mass Bike Confiscation 189

11 You No Longer Think, You Just Pedal: The Final Years of the Occupation 209

12 Give My Father's Bike Back: The Occupation's Legacy 235

13 After You Passed: The Mystery Rider 251

14 It's Chaos with the Bicycles: The 1950s 265

15 A Bike Is Coming: The New Additions 287

16 A Bike Is Something, Yet Almost Nothing! The 1960s 293

17 A Big Success: The Urban Myths of the White Bicycles 315

18 A Typical Amsterdam Characteristic: The Bike Fishermen 327

19 Death to the Car!: The 1970s 343

20 It's a Joy to Be on a Bike Again!: The 1980s Onward 365

21 Let's Ride: Looking Back and Looking Forward 385

Acknowledgments 395

Notes 397

Editorial Reviews

A funny, engaging, and exhaustively researched tribute to Amsterdam’s unique biking history….Jordan is an honest, self-effacing narrator, and there’s much that’s lovably comic about his inauguration into Amsterdam cyclo-culture.

Los Angeles Times

A charming and quirky book....Jordan’s portrait of bicycle culture in Amsterdam gives a fascinating account of a viable alternative to dependence on cars.

Christian Science Monitor

This highly readable book illuminates the bicycle’s integral role in shaping both the psyche and the actual city of Amsterdam.

Houston Chronicle

For anyone contemplating visiting or living in The Netherlands, In the City of Bikes is a must read.

New York Journal of Books

Full of personal anecdote, self-deprecating humor, local lore and a history of cycling that positively bursts with enthusiasm, In the City of Bikes is both a memoir and an ode to bicycles

Shelf Awareness

Aspiring city planner and memoirist Jordan (Dishwasher) arrived for a semester in Amsterdam in order to find ways to make the United States more bicycle friendly, but a few weeks in the bike-crazy city convinced him to stay forever. The resulting memoir is as much a love letter to Amsterdam as a chronicle of family life on two wheels. Replete with historical detail and quirky anecdotes (bike fishing is not what you think), this tale of bicycle mania provides compelling evidence that, with some effort, we can lead the lives we’d like to. VERDICT This thoroughly researched and entertaining narrative of one family’s passion for pedaling places may encourage readers in search of a greener way to live.

(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Library Journal

A history of bicycles and cycling in Amsterdam. Jordan (Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States, 2007) begins with his move to Amsterdam, which he undertook in order to study urban planning as it pertains to cycling. Continually fascinated by the overwhelming number of people riding bicycles through the streets, Jordan eventually began to chronicle the city's history of cycling. Pulling together information from guidebooks, newspaper accounts and other sources, the author pieces together a thorough history, from the introduction of bicycles in the 1890s to the present. Jordan clearly loves bikes and everything associated with cycling culture, which produces some truly laugh-out-loud moments, particularly as he embraces both the ridiculous and the commonplace. The author doesn't ignore less-glamorous storylines--e.g., the general nonchalance of cyclists toward traffic laws or the fact that bike regulations sparked more public outcry than anti-Jewish policies during the Nazi occupation. The chapter dealing with the Nazi occupation is particularly interesting. Jordan mentions Anne Frank but spends the bulk of the section detailing how citizens were affected by German policies targeting bikes and cyclists. While this is no memoir, Jordan includes his own personal interactions with cycling in the city, which makes what could have been a straightforward history into something more special: history that doesn't feel like history--just an enjoyable story from start to finish. An excellent choice for bikers and those who appreciate how a city's history can be changed by the simplest of passions.

Kirkus Reviews