Book Description
Reviewers’ comments on the first edition
“Marks the coming of age of the academic study of media sport.”
Media, Culture & Society
“The book is extremely well-written – ideal as a student text, yet also at the forefront of innovation.”
International Review of Cultural Studies
“A thoroughly worthwhile read and an excellent addition to the growing literature on media sport”
Sport, Education and Society

Sport, Culture and the Media was the first book to analyse comprehensively two of the most powerful cultural forces of our times: sport and media. It examines the ways in which media sport has established itself in contemporary everyday life, and how sport and media have made themselves mutually dependent.

This new edition examines the latest developments in sports media, including:

• Expanded material on new media sport and technology developments
• Updated coverage of political economy, including major changes in the ownership of sports broadcasting
• New scholarship and research on recent sports events like the Olympics and the World Cup, sports television and press, and theoretical developments in areas like globalisation and spectatorship.

Book Description
Critical Readings: Sport, Culture and the Media contains a broad range of essays on the relationships between sport, culture and the media. Featuring a mixture of classic works and recent texts, the Reader provides students, lecturers and researchers with an essential core of readings on the topic.

The readings examine media and sport in Europe, North and South America, Australia, Asia and Africa and explore topics such as:

• Sport as entertainment: the role of mass communications
• The manufacture of sports news for the daily press
• The televised sports manhood formula
• Women, sport and globalization
• Sport on the information superhighway
• Advertising sportswear to black audiences
• Mega-events and media culture: sport and the Olympics

Book Description

"Most of the contributions strongly project the authors' perceptions of the role of race on their subjects, and essays should elicit lively discussions in the classroom."
—CHOICE

Frederick Douglass liked to say of West Indian boxer Peter Jackson that "Peter is doing a great deal with his fists to solve the Negro question."His comment reflects the possibilities for social transformation that he saw in the emerging modern sports culture.Indeed, as the twentieth century developed, sports have become an important cultural terrain over which various racial groups have contested, defined, and represented their racial, national, and inter-ethnic identities.

Sports Matters brings critical attention to the centrality of race within the politics and pleasures of the massive sports culture that developed in the U.S. during the past century and a half.The contributors collected here address such issues as popular representations of blacks in sports.They consider baseball—from Nisei players in Oregon to Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles.And they look at the use of warrior imagery in representations of Native American athletes and the evolution of black expressive style within basketball.

Sports Matters challenges our presumptions about sports, illuminating in the process the complexities of race and gender as they relate to popular culture.

Contributors include Amy Bass, John Bloom, Annie Gilbert Coleman, Gena Caponi, Montye Fuse, Randy Hanson, Michiko Hase, George Lipsitz, Keith Miller, Sharon O'Brien, Connie Razza, Sam Regalado, Greg Rodriguez, Julio Rodriguez, Michael Willard, and Henry Yu.

Book Description
Sport-Commerce-Culture makes a significant contribution to the growing body of literature on the critical analysis of today's highly mediated and commercialized sport spectacles. David L. Andrews explores sport's interdependent relation with the commercial structures and rhythms that define the experience of consumer capitalism within the contemporary United States. Through a series of highly original, interrelated essays, Andrews uncovers the complex connections between sport and contemporary processes of commercialization, commodification, and mass mediation. Focusing attention on a wide variety of sport events, signs, stars, and spaces, such as the XFL, Tiger Woods, the Olympic Games, suburban soccer, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Sport-Commerce-Culture offers a unique point of entry into the study of American life. This book is compulsory reading for students and researchers of contemporary sport and sport culture. ... Read more

Book Description
This book provides coaches, educators, parents, and others dealing with students and athletes with an engaging and critical venue by which to examine contemporary issues and controversies surrounding sport. In this text, authors take up the challenges faced by sport in our world, especially as it relates to the lives of young people, providing multiple perspectives on the issues, problems, and possibilities of sport in contemporary American society. ... Read more

Book Description
Explains why cities dig deep in their pockets to host the Olympics and countries breed teams for success on the world soccer stage. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Cultural History of Sports
This is a collection of essays about the effects that major sports events have had on countries that hosted the events. The Olympics and Football World Cup are featured, and the authors of each essay explore different aspects of how each society reacted to some peculiar facet of the experience. In Argentina during the 1978 World Cup, a brutal repression of leftist dissidence was going on while the home country was battling for the trophy they eventually won. The author explains how the Cup experience unified even those being imprisoned and tortured with their right wing captors in the headiness of nationalist sports fervor. Similarly, another essay looks at the way South Korea's and Japan's peoples behaved during the joint World Cup they co-hosted in 2002; whereas the Japanese were reserved to the point of banning street viewings on large screen TVs of the matches, the Koreans enthusiastically embraced the tournament that saw their squad advance to the semi-finals. Some essays are more interesting than others, always an issue with such collections of varying writing skills. But all in all a useful summary of the cultural impact that global sports can have. ... Read more

Book Description
This exciting, accessible introduction to the field of Sport Studies is the most comprehensive guide yet to the relationships between sport, culture and society. Taking an international perspective, Sport, Culture and Society provides students with the insight they need to think critically about the nature of sport.
· Clearly structured, thematic text
· Unrivalled coverage of key topics and new areas for research in sport
· Accessible guide to research evidence, including both primary and secondary sources
· Original case studies
· Authoritative resource materials
· Full range of textbook support materials, including revision questions, research project ideas, web links, further reading
Sport, Culture and Society represents a fundamental text for all students of sport. ... Read more

Book Description
Consuming Sport is the first book to explicitly and comprehensively address how sport is experienced and engaged with in the everyday lives, social networks and consumer patterns of its followers, the fans. It examines the process of becoming a sport fan, and the social and moral career that supporters follow as their involvement develops over a lifetime.
As well as developing a new theory of sports fandom and presenting a case for new ethnographic approaches to the study of sports fans, the book includes a wealth of unique research material. The text explores the argument that while concepts of authenticity, tradition, and locality continue to have importance, today, mass media and merchandising have a far greater influence on patterns of loyalty. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The best of its kind that I've found
Three years ago, in response to a Sunday School student's question about what the kids were supposed to do on Sunday mornings in the Summer after Sunday School went on vacation, I found myself starting a summer soccer program at a small, rural Episcopal church in the Northeast.



At the time, it seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to do.We had kids with an interest in it, and we had a field behind the church that we could use.And it was better to have the kids (and their parents) present at church in the Summer than off doing their own things.



Only when I started planning the second summer did it occur to me that this was something that wasn't usual, especially in the Episcopal church.I started looking for books that might help me figure out how to do a better job of whatever it was that I was doing.



My first forays into what I came to realize was the literature of recreation and sports ministry came up with some pretty awful tracts -- for that is what they were.The gist of them seemed to be that the content of the sports or recreation program wasn't important; the only thing that was important, according to these books, was to harangue the kids about Jesus as long as they would hold still.They were so wrong-headed, so counter-productive, so punitive, that one wondered if they had been written by closet atheists who wanted to poison kids on Christianity so permanently that they would never want to enter a church again.They were genuinely that bad.



THEN I found this book.



It gave me a good, well thought out scriptural basis for recreation and sports ministry.



It traced the history of recreation and sports ministry in the English-speaking world and helped me understand why our little summer soccer program was unique (increasingly I am thinking that it is unique!)



It gave me some practical advice about a whole range of topics concerned with organizing, funding, and operating a recreation and sports ministry.



It had FOOTNOTES!!!! and it cited OTHER AUTHORS!!!!! Not one other source on the subject that I found had that much intellectual integrity; not a single one.



We're now in the midst of our third year of summer soccer at Trinity Church, Lime Rock.If you want to see what it looks like, www.trinitylimerock.org is the parish website; you can find the soccer program under the "Young people" tab.



Using advice from this book, the program's doubled in size from last summer.We get respect from the local youth soccer club, and from the proprietors of the summer soccer camps.The local paper has given us coverage for four consecutive weeks now.We see families in church regularly now that we saw on occasional Christmases and Easters in the past.We see adolescents who had moved on to other things in their lives back on the premises for soccer.



Importantly, this book has helped me to realize that what we are doing is exciting and novel and effective, but that it is by no means all we can do in the recreation and sports ministry area.Since reading the book I've had some thoughts about programs for adults and more programs for kids that we can do.And right across from our church is the auto racetrack, Lime Rock Park.Who knows what the possibilities are?



It is a really valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent Cardinals History
This book documents the history of professional baseball in St. Louis, starting with the short-lived St. Louis Brown Stockings in 1875 through the fascinating history of the St. Louis Browns before they became what we know of today as the St. Louis Cardinals.As baseball historian Bill James has stated, "A very good baseball movie could be made about baseball in St. Louis, 1883-86.It's got everything - - great teams, unbelievable characters . . . pennant races, World Series.Best material for a baseball movie ever."

This is a superbly researched book.Nearly every fact is documented and footnoted, primarily from first-hand accounts published by various newspapers and journalists at the time.Reading the Notes at the end of the book is just as interesting as reading the book itself.Drunkards, cheaters, womanizers . . . baseball in its infancy makes today's issues (steroids, over-paid players) pale in comparison.

The casual baseball fan will most likely be bored by this book, but to those who love baseball history and lore (especially involving the historic St. Louis Cardinals), this is a must-read book.

Early Major League Baseball in the "Gateway to the West"
What did it mean to have a major league baseball team in the latter nineteenth century? How did the host city relate to it and what about its place in the life of the city's inhabitants? These are some of the questions explored in this excellent history of major league baseball (MLB) in St. Louis. Beginning as a dissertation at the University of Oregon, Cash has fashioned what is sure to become the standard work on the rise of MLB in the city that was at the time of the formation of the National League in 1876 the farthest west and south of any of the cities participating it. Cash spends considerable time on the excellent but short-lived Brown Stockings, the city's first entry into the National League; their namesake in the American Association in the 1880s, and the team that became the modern St. Louis Cardinals. Cash rightly notes that city rivalry between St. Louis and Chicago, including both prestige and economic factors, sparked much of the early interest by metropolitan leaders in MLB. He also suggests that in large measure the National League, and St. Louis's place in it, was possible because of the ability to travel between cities by rail. Without it these intercity leagues would not have been feasible.

The author also includes excellent discussions of Chris Von der Ahe and the origins of what became the Cardinals. Von der Ahe, a well-known St. Louis businessman, formed the St. Louis Brown Stockings in the American Association in 1880. He owned a beer garden and boardinghouse near a baseball field on Grand Avenue, and seeing that his bar always picked up before and after baseball games played there, he understood that baseball fans would be good patrons for his business. Mustachioed, Roman nosed, and speaking with thick accent, Von der Ahe was the prototype spotlight grabbing major league baseball team owner. He referred to himself, in his thick accent as "der poss bresident," and the fans loved it. He spent freely, indulged his players, and built an early baseball dynasty in the 1880s. Von der Ahe loved the celebrity his ownership brought him, for now he was not just a prosperous businessman but both a prosperous businessman and a public figure. It was an unbeatable combination, perhaps the real attraction for baseball ownership up to the present, and something repeated many times by many different owners since. In a city rich in baseball history, no one has been more significant in shaping the game in early St. Louis than Chris Von der Ahe.

Cash also details the collapse of the American Association in 1891 and the incorporation of the St. Louis franchise into the National League. Von der Ahe lost his fortune, had to sell the team, and it did poorly in the 1890s but eventually emerged as the fabled St. Louis Cardinals of the twentieth century, which has won more pennants and world championships than any other National League team.

This is an important study of baseball history, as well as in urban history. It is a decided cut above most other writing on the history of baseball, which concentrates on players and cute stories. Unlike so many works on the subject, it is firmly grounded in the documentary record and in the most recent historical thinking. Well done, Jon David Cash! "Before They Were Cardinals" is both a fine historical study and an entertaining reading experience.

I really enjoyed the book.
Pesonally I really enjoy books about baseball before 1930.Back when baseball was more America's pastime.

The book itself was very well written and gave some real insight into the St. Louis-Chicago rivalary.

It was also interesting to read about the labor problems of baseball from 125 years ago.Odd to see really not much has changed just the dollar amounts the player's receive.

It was also neat to see how the beer makers of the 1800's were involved with the game and how without beer St. Louis probably doesn't have a team now. ... Read more

Book Description
A revealing look at gender issues in contemporarysport. ... Read more

Book Description
A leading authority on classical games here provides a comprehensive study of the practice of combat sports in the ancient civilizations of Greece, Rome, and the Near East. Describing and analyzing the sports of boxing, wrestling, stick-fighting, and pankration, Michael B. Poliakoff discusses such topics as the function of competition and violent games in ancient society; on the social background of the participants, showing the broad spectrum of Greek athletic personnel; on the significance of the appearance of combat sport in myth and literature; and on the alleged cultic functions of the ancient combat sports. The book is copiously illustrated with photographs of numerous objects rarely or never before published. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Great Book!!!!!!
Well to start off im 18 and HATE READING (as does everyone in my generation) and from the way that this book was layed out I thought it was the average encyclopidia style book that is boring as hell and that only Stephen FRICKEN Hawking could only understand. I did order it seeing from the last 4 reviews and found out that this book is actually very informative and very well written to keep your attention regardless if you hate reading or not. Filled with greek storys and in formation on pankration, boxing and wrestling. And little things about them that will make you sound smart LOL. I even used this book as my main source for my essay in college and got a A to be honest this was my only source really the other 5 books were the encyclopidia style that looked like they were written in greek rather than be on the damn topic. Anyways really good book definitly would say buy it though there is only like 3 pages on stick fighting so if your looking for that you might be a little disapointed but none the less this book is to good to not get.

An Excellent Survey of Classical Martial Arts
Poliakoff gives a thorough overview of the three combat sports of the ancient Olympics (wrestling, boxing, & pankration), their rules, the training involved, and the attitudes of the Ancients towards those sports.He speaks briefly of Egyptian stick fighting, but the dearth of ancient literature on the subject means he can treat it only superficially.

In addition to describing the sports, Poliakoff gives biographies of some of the more famous practitioners and voices some opinions about the usefulness of combat sports to the body politic, especially in the field of athletics.

In his exposition, Poliakoff sometimes dismisses as fantastical legend some feats which are achievable by well trained athletes.For example, he expresses grave doubts about the tradition that the wrestler Milo of Kroton could lift and carry a bull.In the mid-20th century there was a carnival performer, H.E. Mann, who lifted and carried a bull as a part of his act.Mann's act was inspired by Milo.Poliakoff neglects to mention that Milo is credited as the father of "progressive resistance" weight training.Milo began with a calf and lifted it daily until it became full grown.H.E. Mann trained for his carnival act exactly as Milo did, beginning with a calf and lifting it daily until it became full grown.One of the USA's earliests vendors of weight training equipment was the Milo Barbell Company.

Poliakoff takes a dim view of the savagery involved in ancient combat sports and sees no correlation between the combat sports and actual military service.Although Poliakoff seeks to show that excellent combat athletes make poor soldiers, he does cite numerous counter examples to his position.It seems ancient Greek history is full of individuals who distinguished themselves both in the games and on the battlefield.

Notwithstanding Poliakoff's anti-combat-sports agenda, the book is an informative and enjoyable reading experience.

Nothing New Under the Sun
Fans of modern day Pankration, as in the UFC, Pride and other such events, will be fascinated to read of the close parallels between the ancient and modern versions in terms of technique, match style as well as audience reception.Many of the same issues facing the sport today were dealt with by the ancients.

More important perhaps is what is revealed regarding the importance and effectiveness of combat sports outside the competitive arena.Poliakoff quotes Homer, Alexander and others to make the point that boxing, wrestling and pankration may not be so effective in producing an effective warrior.Alexander, for instance, didn't approve of boxing and wrestling but did favor stick fighting.Champion athletes in the Iliad are cowardly in battle.The Romans blame the Greek love of "games" on their decline.

Scholarly, readable, relevant.

"...victory...gained in blood..."
This book effectively shows that ancient sports were
also about the rough and tumble and agony, as well
as the skill, courage, and cleverness.The book
is a complete survey including information about
ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, but primarily focuses
on Greek and Roman sports and venues.
As the author, Michael Poliakoff, says in Chapter
I, "General Aspects of the Ancient Combat Sports,"
"Boxing, wrestling, and pankration, a sport that
allowed a variety of unarmed fighting tactics, were
the three important forms of combat sport in the
ancient world. *** The element of fighting makes
combat sports easy to mark off as a group; more
difficult is settling on a definition of sport in
general.I define sport and athletics in this book
as activity in which a person physically competes
against another in a contest with established
regulations and procedures, with the immediate
object of succeeding in that contest under criteria
for determining victory that are different from those
that mark success in everyday life."
The chapters of the book are: General Aspects of
the Ancient Combat Sports/ Wrestling/ Pankration/
Stick Fighting/ Boxing/ The Nature and Purpose of
Combat Sport/ The Participants in Greek Combat
Sport/ Metaphor, Myth, and Reality/ as well as
an Appendix titled "Combat Sport, Funeral Cult,
and Human Sacrifice."
The book is very well illustrated throughout
the text with photographs from vases, drinking
cups, statues, Egyptian wall paintings and
sculptures, a photo of a Greek wrestling
manuscript, and a modern photo of Nuba wrestlers
in the Sudan.
Each of the chapters is also divided into
interesting sub-sections.In Chapter VI, for
instance, the sub-sections are: The Problem of
Athletic Violence/ The Nature of Ancient Criticism/
Military Consideratons/ Military Critics/ An
Agonistic Society/ Sport in Other Cultures: The
Contrast with Greece/ and, Greek Agon and Social
Need.
Each chapter starts with a highly interesting
and engrossing introductory paragraph.From the
"Wrestling" chapter comes this: "Wrestling appealed
deeply to the ancients.Though far from being a
gentle sport, it is substantially less violent and
injurious than the other two combat sports: it pits
one man against another in a close struggle that
maximizes the role of skill and science.In a
manner that encourges wide participation, it tests
an array of martial virtues: cunning, boldness,
courage, self-reliance, and perseverance."
-- Robert Kilgore.

Very good historical review of "Combat Sports." back then.
I give this book an 8 because it had a vlaue to me beyond what normally would be sought.I am a fan of today's comabt sports, the UFC, Pancrase, Vale Tudo, etc...This was the beginning and it was facinating to me.I had read about Pancration, Boxing and Wrestling in ancient times in another book (which this list doesn't have access to I notice...) called "Living in teh Combat Zone" by Rick Renner - published by Pillar Books of Tulsa OK.It's A Christian book, but has tremendous historical value as well. Joe ... Read more

Book Description
January 2005 will see the 70th anniversary of Elvis Presley''s birth. This new edition of the Rough Guide to Elvis, will be the most up-to-date guide on every aspect of The King, from his songs to his record collection, his cars to his costumes, from his birth to his mythic afterlife. The guide charts his life, the music, the 50 essential Presley songs, the collectables, the museums, a world tour of the essential Elvis sights - from Graceland to Germany - and the Icon - Elvis as king, star, image and myth. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not a sequel
Although this is listed as "The Rough Guide to Elvis 2," it's not a sequel, but rather the earlier Rough Guide in a slightly larger format with a new cover. The contents are identical.

It's still a spectacular book on the man, opinionated yet comprehensive. It's a perfect starter book for King neophytes, covering every aspect of his career, and also an ideal Elvis "desert island" book - if you could only have one.

Great book for any Elvis fan!
This book was recommended in a magazine and I am so glad I bought it.Very insightful and full of interesting facts that I had never known before. ... Read more

Product Description
Curt Flood, former star center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, is a hero to many for selflessly sacrificing his career to challenge baseball s reserve system. Sportswriters and fans have helped to paint a picture of Flood as a larger-than-life figure, a portrait that, unhappily, cannot stand closer inspection. This book reveals the real Flood more man than myth. Drawing on previously untapped sources, Weiss explains how Flood s battle against the reserve system cannot be understood in isolation from the personal experiences that precipitated it, such as his youth in a dysfunctional home, his unwavering commitment to the Cardinals, and his alcoholism. It shows that Flood was neither a hero nor a martyr but a victim of unique circumstances and his own life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A few errors
Interesting premise, and although the writing is a bit uninspired, a reasonable read.I am still not quite sure what problem the Mr. Weiss was trying to solve (but, indeed, the book is provocative, as the author promises).I also was struck by the apparent refusal of any of Curt Flood's teammates to speak with the Mr. Weiss about Flood's career.I think there also could have been a bit more discussion of Jackie Robinson's testimony at the trial and what prompted it.

I did spot a few minor errors which I would suggest revisiting should there be a second edition.

page 103, top paragraph, for Keane (who was dead by 1967) should be Schoendinst.

page 106there is a repeat of the phraase "-and Mickey Lolich"...which I think is unintentional

page 114 The museum housing the old masters in Amsterdam is the "Rijksmuseum", not the "Reichsmuseum"(probably the last thing the Dutch would want the place called"

page 140Not really an error, but when the Phils were trying to lure Flood to come in 1970, the artificial turf of the Vet was still more than year away

page 175In January of 1970, the opposing teams in the Superbowl were Kansas City and Minnesota, not Green Bay and Minnesota

My only other observation is that whatever the myth was, Flood was a fabulous player and in 1967, when the Cards came to New England for the Series, many of thought that with the excepton of Frank Robinson (who had come to the Orioles the previous year) the American Leagues did not have players the likes of Flood, Bob Gibson and Lous Brock.

Review of the Curt Flood Story
This book is a good read and not only for a baseball fans. It is primarily about a player's reasons for sacrificing his career, and in that sense it is extremely provocative. It directly attacks the eulogistic and long-standing view that Curt Flood was a hero who sacrificed his career on behalf of a noble cause--challenging baseball's reserve system in the courts. In that sense it is a psychodrama.

Review of The Curt Flood Story: The Man behind the Myth
According to the author, this book is the story of the life of a sensitive, brooding St. Louis Cardinals star center fielder who became unhinged after misplaying a costly line drive in the 1968 World Series, feuded with his boss, Gussie Busch, and the Cardinals front office, and then found himself traded.Bound by his contract that obligated him to go where the Cardinals sent him, or retire, he chose a third option--to challenge baseball's reserve clause which he believed, after conferring with his lawyer, was unconstitutional.The writer argues, successfully in this reader's judgment, that Flood's unusual decision, sacrificing his career, was another in a series of bad decisions that stemmed from his misplay in 1968.In this smoothly written book, Professor Weiss also argues very cogently that although Flood, because of his challenge to the reserve clause, is viewed by many people as the father of free agency, actually he was at best the grandfather, and perhaps only the Godfather, of free agency.
... Read more

Book Description
By 1907, staff at the Tianjin YMCA were rallying their Chinese charges with the cry: When will China be able to send a winning athlete to the Olympic contests? When will China be able to invite all the world to Peking for an International Olympic contest? Nearly a century later, on the eve of China's first-ever Olympic games, this innovative book shows for the first time how sporting culture and ideology played a crucial role in the making of the modern nation-state in Republican China. A landmark work on the history of sport in China, Marrow of the Nation tells the dramatic story of how Olympic-style competitions and ball games, as well as militarized forms of training associated with the West and Japan, were adapted to become an integral part of the modern Chinese experience. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The clash of Imperial China and Western revolutionary modern
An important book on the politics of physical culture in China. Those wishing to get a deep insight into the role and importance of martial arts to Chinese nationalism will find this book invaluable. The book focuses on the terrible time during the political, social, and economic collapse of traditional China and offers a deep insight into the clash of Imperial China and Western revolutionary modernism.
During the New Culture Movement of the 1910s, two clear factions developed among martial arts associations. The modernists rejected old Imperial values and proposed reform along the lines of Western and European ideas as a way of keeping martial arts relevant. Resisting these changes were the conservatives who hoped "to preserve China's old ways and skills and who reject(ed) Europeanization." The reformers strongly criticized the old traditional Shifu and associations for favoring oral transmission to a select few. They claimed that traditional factionalism and secrecy was limiting the vitality of the martial arts and even misleading the public with "mumbo-jumbo."During the first decades of the Republican era, some members of the martial arts community began repackaging wushu in modern, scientific terms, and promoting it as part of modern physical education. They argued that the martial arts were an indigenous physical culture, as useful as European exercise and sport.
Interestingly modern China, in re-packaging its culture, has taken this same route. ... Read more

Product Description
This first book to examine the two popular realms of sports and autobiography looks at recurring patterns found in athletes' accounts of their lives and sporting experiences, examining language, metaphor, and other rhetorical strategies to analyze sports from the inside out. Drawing on the life stories of well-known athletes, Pipkin follows players from the echoing green of eternal youth to the sometimes cultlike and isolated status of fame, interpreting recurring patterns both in the living of their lives and in the telling of them. He sheds light on athletes' common obsession with youth and body image; explores their descriptions of being in a zone; and considers the time that all athletes dread, when their bodies begin to betray them . . . and the cheering stops. ... Read more

Book Description
This is a readable, up-to-date, illustrated introduction to the history of sport and spectacle in the ancient world from the Ancient Near East through Greek and Hellenistic times and into the Roman Empire.

• Covers athletics, combat sports, chariot racing, beast fights and gladiators.


• Traces the precursors of Greek and Roman sports and spectacles in the Ancient Near East and the Bronze Age Aegean.


• Investigates the origins, nature and meaning of sport, covering issues of violence, professionalism, class, gender and eroticism.


• Challenges the notion that Greek sport and Roman spectacle were polar opposites.


• Approaches sport and spectacle as overlapping and compatible features of civilized states and empires.