At the end of the nineteenth century, the United States was enraptured by the bicycle. As their nation rose in power and influence, many Americans understood their world at home and abroad from the seat of a bicycle. Nathan Cardon offers a new account of the turn-of-the-century bicycle boom, bringing together everyday social histories with the broader history of the making of US global power.

With memorable protagonists from champion Black cyclists such as Marshall “Major” Taylor to forgotten celebrities like Fanny Bullock Workman, The World Awheel shows how cyclists shaped American ideas of their nation in the world. Across the United States, Americans followed the growing cycling cultures of Paris, London, Johannesburg, and Shanghai. Racers, missionaries, entrepreneurs, and tourists carried bicycles and cycling practices through Europe, Australia, and beyond, forging new forms of mobility, cultural exchange, and engagement with the world.

Cardon emphasizes how racial and settler-colonial ideology shaped cycling while also highlighting Black, Asian American, and Indigenous peoples’ relationship with bicycles. He traces the interplay of global politics and imperial forces that shaped the bicycle’s production and use. Telling an around-the-world story of the bicycle, this book offers new perspective on the politics of movement—past, present, and future—and the rise of the United States as a global power.