Mental Health, Gender, and the Rise of Sport explores the historical role of sport in the prescription for mental and physical health through the epidemic of neurasthenia, a debilitating neurological disorder that afflicted American society throughout the latter nineteenth century. Gerald R. Gems argues that the practice of sport and sport ......
The tales of early ESPN people who gambled their careers while critics carped that "all-sports television will never work" are full of guile, luck, fear, fun, and unbridled optimism. As ESPN's founding executive producer, Peter Fox was privy to some spectacular professional efforts by a cadre of Connecticut locals who made the dream real. The ......
A fascinating history of the Super Bowl and its massive impact on the sports world and beyond.
The Super Bowl has changed what was just another wintry Sunday into America’s unofficial holiday. It’s the biggest entertainment event of the year. It’s the most important advertising event of the year. It is the biggest ......
The Olympic Games are unique. Nothing in world society, culture and sport matches the magnificent spectacle every four years of more than 10,500 sportsmen and woman pursuing the dream of gold medal glory. The original Olympics, more than 2,000 years ago, were confined to ancient Greece. Today's stars compete in front of a worldwide audience ......
The Olympic Games are unique. Nothing in world society, culture and sport matches the magnificent spectacle every four years of more than 10,500 athletes pursuing the dream of gold medal glory. The original Olympics, more than 2,000 years ago, were confined to ancient Greece. Today's stars compete in front of a worldwide audience measured in ......
What - you may ask is the point of an English perspective on French sport? In David Owen's own words, "you might just as well seek out a sea otter's take on kabuki". Nevertheless, having lived upwards of ten per cent of his life in France, and a lot more than that immersed in French grammar, current affairs and culture, he offers exactly that in ......
A fascinating look at the rise of the SEC from a regional league to today's dominant college football conference. The story of the Southeastern Conference has humble origins. Born in a Knoxville hotel in 1932 after splitting away from another league, the SEC was built by southern gridiron pioneers who believed football could bring prominence and ......
Cycling emerged as a sport in the late 1870s, and from the beginning, Black Americans rode alongside and raced against white competitors. Robert J. Turpin sheds light on the contributions of Black cyclists from the sport's early days through the cementing of Jim Crow laws during the Progressive Era. As Turpin shows, Black cyclists used the bicycle ......
Sports and Black Struggles for Justice Since the Late Nineteenth Century
A captivating exploration of Black American civil rights activism through the lens of sport. In Frontline Bodies, Nicolas Martin-Breteau argues that sports are not--and have never been--purely about entertainment for Black Americans. Instead, beginning in the 1890s during Reconstruction, Black Americans proactively used athletics as a tactic to ......
