Sweet William
- 376 pages
- 14 hours of reading
A tribute to Billy Conn, one of the greatest light-heavyweight boxing champions of all time
Sport and Society Series
This series explores the intricate connections between sports and the wider society. It features concise, accessible essays and reissued works that examine sport from diverse academic disciplines. Aimed at both students and general readers, it provides insightful analyses of sport as a social phenomenon. Each volume offers a fresh perspective on how sport shapes and is shaped by our world.
Recommended Reading Order
The New American Sport History
- 423 pages
- 15 hours of reading
In this collection, sixteen scholars explore topics as diverse as the historical debate over black athletic superiority, the selling of sport in society, the eroticism of athletic activity, sexual fears of women athletes, and the marketing of the marathon. In line with the changing nature of sport history as a field of study, the essays focus less on traditional topics and more on themes of class, gender, race, ethnicity, and national identity, which also define the larger parameters of social and cultural history. It is the first anthology to situation sport history within the broader fields of social history and cultural studies. Contributors are Melvin L. Adelman, William J. Baker, Pamela L. Cooper, Mark Dyreson, Gerald R. Gems, Elliott J. Gorn, Allen Guttmann, Stephen H. Hardy, Peter Levine, Donald J. Mrozek, Michael Oriard, S. W. Pope, Benjamin G. Rader, Steven A. Riess, Nancy L. Struna, and David K. Wiggins.
Rocky Marciano
- 392 pages
- 14 hours of reading
Talks about the life, career, and impact of Rocky Marciano, the legendary heavyweight boxing champion who also stands as a powerful symbol of his times. číst celé
The Nazi Olympics
- 280 pages
- 10 hours of reading
The 1936 Olympic Games played a key role in the development of both Hitler’s Third Reich and international sporting competition. This volume gathers original essays by modern scholars from the Games’ most prominent participating countries and lays out the issues -- sporting as well as political -- surrounding individual nations’ involvement. The Nazi Olympics opens with an analysis of Germany’s preparations for the Games and the attempts by the Nazi regime to allay the international concerns about Hitler’s racist ideals and expansionist ambitions. Essays follow on the United States, Great Britain, and France -- three first-class Olympian nations with misgivings about participation -- as well as German ally Italy and future ally Japan. Other essays examine the issues at stake in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands, which opposed Hitler’s politics, despite embodying his Aryan ideal. Challenging the view of sport as a trivial pursuit, this collection reveals exactly how high the political stakes were in 1936 and how the Nazi Olympics distilled many of the critical geopolitical issues of the time into a contest that was anything but trivial.
City Games
- 368 pages
- 13 hours of reading
Comprehensive and thoughtful, City Games looks at the complex interrelationship and interdependency between sport and the city. Steven A. Riess shows how demographic growth, evolving special arrangements, social reform, the formulation of class and ethnic subcultures, the expansion of urban government, and the rise of political machines and crime syndicates all interacted to influence the development of sports in the United States.
Golf in America
- 266 pages
- 10 hours of reading
This book offers an inclusive exploration of golf's history and its growing popularity in the United States, highlighting diverse perspectives and contributions to the sport.
Sandow the Magnificent
- 264 pages
- 10 hours of reading
Before Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Reeves, or Charles Atlas, there was German-born Eugen Sandow (1867-1925), a muscular vaudeville strongman who used his good looks, intelligence, and business savvy to forge a fitness empire. This book features the story of this first showman to emphasize physique display rather than lifting prowess.
The degradation of modern sport--its commercialization, trivialization, widespread cheating, cult of athletic stars and celebrities, and manipulation by the media--has led to calls for its transformation. William J. Morgan constructs a critical theory of sport that shores up the weak arguments of past attempts and points a way forward to making sport more humane, compelling, and substantive. Drawing on the work of social theorists, Morgan challenges scholars and fans alike to explore new spaces in sport culture and imagine the rich cultural and political possibilities to be found in the pastimes we follow with such passion.
A biography of the Black athlete who won four gold Olympic medals in 1936. Describes his life before and after this event and the example he set for others
Jesse Owens
- 304 pages
- 11 hours of reading
Born the tenth child of a poor Southern sharecropper, Jesse Owens would nevertheless go on to win an unprecedented four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. This biography of Owens details the successes and failures of this complex and troubled but ultimately indomitable figure who... číst celé
