The History of Roller Skating

Rating:
Summary: Filling a niche, and it's about time!
Review: The History of Roller Skating is a wonderful book about a topic that has been sorely neglected. Even most competitive roller skaters have very little knowledge of the history of their sport; Turner's book goes a long way toward filling in those gaps, with emphasis on the USA skating scene.

With lots of detail and many wonderful photos, this History is entertaining for those both in and out of the US competitive skating community. It's also of interest to ice skaters and ice skating fans who are curious about the shared history of ice and roller skating.

Color photos would be a nice edition to a future edition of this book (the current edition features black and white photos), especially in the chapter that talks about changes in skating costuming over the years. If there was anything else I would change, it would be to add more about the skaters who have made history throughout the years. Who were the great skaters, the equals of ice skating's Dorothy Hamill or Brian Boitano? Since roller skating doesn't get TV coverage, those skaters are unknown, and they shouldn't be. The book mentions some of the skaters and their feats, but more photos and statistics would be tremendous -- there really is no other source for them.

Even without those improvements, this is an excellent book that I can recommend with no reservations.