Footprint: Four Itineraries takes the footprint for a walk—to the Himalayas, the American southwest, to Arnhem Land and the moon, through monuments, prehistoric sites, sidewalks, and paintings, alongside artists, cartographers, surveyors and trackers, hesitating at revolutionary debate and solitary reverie, waylaid by war and land claims, sniffing greed and curiosity, recognizing both falter and fit, moving stealthily and boldly—to test the lasting power of this very material metaphor.

The book probes the long history of the footprint’s manifestation in the human imagination. It has signified mobility and occupation, inquiry and imperialism, absence and presence, trace, and impact. As a metaphor, it is ubiquitous and oddly self-evident. The book’s four itineraries trace the contradictory forensic evidence offered by the footprint’s many appearances. How can that dreamy print of your sole in the sand also signify that the planet is dying? When did a lithe mobile residue become a leaden artifact? Stories of footprints testify to colonialism, imperialism, and suppression but woven through them are histories of desire, persistence, mobility, and of lightness. In taking you on a series of journeys to understand why and what it means for our future, Footprint: Four Itineraries asks if it is yet possible to tread lightly on our world.