Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

How did the skateboard go from a fad like the hula-hoop to an Olympic sport? Writer and skateboarder Jonathan Russell Clark's Skateboard answers this question by going straight to the sources: the skaters and company owners and manufacturers who made such an unlikely rise to worldwide juggernaut possible. As the stuntwood (as it’s often referred to) has never had, like other sports and subjects, dedicated historians who recorded down relevant and important information as skateboarding progress, the real history of skating exists in a hodgepodge of random and iconic videos, tattered photographs, and, mostly, in the blurry memories of the people who lived through it all. From California beaches to Tokyo 2020, the skateboard has outlasted its critics to form a global community of innovation, persistence, and camaraderie.

Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.