One day in front of the television would convince any alien that the entirety of American culture is built around sports. Politics and business are abustle with sports metaphors and endorsements by athletes. ''Home runs,'' ''bottom of the ninth,'' ''fourth and ten,'' ''slam dunk,'' and similar phrases litter the daily vocabulary. No matter how ......
Prowess--extraordinary skill and ability, especially in sports--has always been important to Americans, even in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Nancy L. Struna explores the significance, meaning, and structure of competitive matches and displays of physical prowess for both men and women in colonial culture. Engrossingly written for the ......
A CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, 1998.In The New American Sport History sixteen scholars, many of them among the best known in the field, 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 ......
Why Sports Teams Move and Cities Fight to Keep Them
Can a sports franchise ''blackmail'' a city into getting what it wantsa new stadium, say, or favorable leasing termsby threatening to relocate? In 1982, the owners of the Chicago White Sox pledged to keep the team in Chicago if the city approved a $5-million tax-exempt bond to finance construction of luxury suites at Comiskey Park. The city ......
The degradation of modern sport -- its commercialization, its trivialization, its cult ofathletic stars and celebrities, and its manipulation by the media -- has led to numerouscalls for its transformation. ''Approaching the relations of sport and society with a truly philosophic mind, Morganhas important things to say that no one else has said ......
A Reporter's View of Sports, Journalism, and Society
''If this isn't the best analysis of the professional sports business ever written, I'd like to see the book that beats it. . . . Should be read by every sports fan or -- for that matter -- social critic.'' --From a five-star review, West Coast Review of Books. ''Explores its subject so thoroughly and demolishes so many commonly held assumptions ......
The ''Great John L.'' reigned supreme as world heavyweight champion from his victory over Paddy Ryan in 1882 until James J. Corbett knocked him out after 21 rounds in 1892. The first national sports hero and probably the best-known American of his generation, Sullivan (1858-1918) represented the hopes and aspirations of millions of Americans. A ......
This accessible account explores how and why men risk their lives to perform with and kill wild bulls as part of a public celebration, describing and analyzing the corrida in a way not previously attempted in English.''A balanced, readable, and unprejudiced account of a disappearing cultural phenomenon.''--Times Literary Supplement ''A clear, ......
Papers on the business side of baseball, originally presented at the annual Middlebury College conference on economic issues in 1991. It looks at the players' labour market; the impact of the fans; pay, performance and competitive balance; and the influence of race on salaries.
