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Customer Reviews (1)

Succinct, Enlightening, Learned, and Helpfu
Despite its short length, this book covers everything from the parts of the soul, the tripartite (body, soul, spirit) nature of man, historical origins of sports, chess, sports movies, religion and mysticism, to the future of civilization.

It clarified many of my thoughts on sports and culture which I had never been able to understand or articulate as clearly as the author has.

One warning is the the erudition of the book made it a challenging read, filled with Latin phrases and many references and words which I needed to look up. The discourses in metaphysics required much contemplation to synthesis and understand.

Highly recommended nonetheless. ... Read more

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This book analyzes the ways in which sport reflects, imitates, and questions cultural values. It examines the representation of team sports, heroes, race, families, and gender in films and other media. Analysis of the ways in which broadcast media and films create such images allows us to map the ways in which traditional cultural beliefs and practices resist and accommodate changes. Films about sport do not reproduce a simple, unified set of values-rather, they exhibit the complications of attempting to negotiate ideological contradictions. During the last 50 years, sports films have shifted from the heroic idealization of The Babe Ruth Story (1948) to films revealing complexities, controversies, and uncertainties within the sports world, like Everybody's All American (1988).
These contradictions are especially strong in the areas of race and gender, which are related major changes in the traditional notion of the hero. The book traces the transformation of the image of the hero in sports films within the context of the development of the sports celebrity, epitomized by Michael Jordan. ... Read more

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The definitive Liverpool almanac - a detailed, passionate and insightful look at the Reds. A match-by-match analysis of the 2001-2 season tells you how the Premiership and UEFA Cup unfolded, and brings you face-to-face with the stars of the first team and the next generation of young Academy talent. A guided tour of Anfield and a full history of the club from the Shankly era to the Houllier Revolution, plus a detailed guide to the city itself, a supporters' diary for 2002-3, opposition profiles and all the stats. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Beware
Beware this is not the Rough Guide to Liverpool - travel guide.It is the Rough Guide to Liverpool Reds Football Team - all very well if that's what you wanted. I didn't. ... Read more

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Published Under the Garamond Imprint

Hockey Night in Canada will appeal to all readers interested in the wider implications of sport in our society. The authors look at the roots of the modern game. They discuss such elements as the everyday working world of professional hockey, hockey in small communities, violence in professional and minor leagues, and issues of Canadian identity. The book examines the profound changes and pressures on hockey within a growing global marketplace for commercial spectacle. 

Customer Reviews (2)

The Political Economy of Hockey
Lucid, critical insights into a ubiquitous Canadian pastime.

A sociological investigation into the development of hockey
The authors offer many interesting insights into the development of Canadia's beloved game. However, there is a lack of first hand data on issues such as hockey violence where ethnographic reseach is highly needed. All in all, a good read as there is no other sociological investigation of hockey out there. ... Read more

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Even before the dawn of written history, it is likely that sports were culturally conditioned institutions that, along with material artifacts, social customs, and ideologies, were transported across cultural lines. Anthropology, Sport, and Culture brings together important articles written about sport by social scientists, humanists, and athletes themselves. ... Read more

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Moore draws on his extensive experience as a criminal trial attorney, handling countless gambling cases, to explain betting concepts in easy-to-grasp terms. He uses amusing and memorable anecdotes to reveal the ideas that most successful bookmakers already know. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Difficult strategy to apply
The main theory behind this book is that the sports betting market will create a closing line that is generally more valid than the opening line.Moore's idea is that one could be successful betting on sports by utilizing his "Blindfold Method" in where a bettor picks off rogue numbers off of sportbooks that are slow to move their lines with the common market line.Some of the ideas are not very practical as many books offer the same line

Great book
Great information. Very helpful.

Best Gambling Portalhttp://www.increasedodds.com

Good primer.....although his "Blindfold Method" is a joke
The first three quarters of the book offer a highly entertaining and educational overview of sport betting.Moore takes the reader through all of the various types of bets and thoroughly explains how the odds fordifferent sporting events are expressed (e.g. money line, point spread,etc.)He also defines much of the lingo in sports betting and devotes anoutstanding chapter to the subject of examining (and debunking) manypopular misconceptions.

However, Moore's betting system (the"Blindfold Method"), which he uses the last quarter of the bookto unveil, is amusing at best.His theory, which suggests that bettors canexploit "soft lines" between different bookmakers, assumes thatsignificant variations in odds can be found regularly ("one or twogames per week").In practice, this does not occur.Most bookmakersare well aware of the Vegas line for all sporting events and manage theirbetting imbalances by using "lay-off" operations instead ofsimply changing their lines (a fact completely ignored in the book).Aswith all betting systems, it is worthwhile to wonder why the author iswriting about them instead of using them to make untold millions.Forthose that do put their faith in Moore's system, the "BlindfoldMethod" could not be more aptly named. ... Read more

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On August 26, 1960, twenty-three-year-old Danish cyclist Knud Jensen, competing in that year's Rome Olympic Games, suddenly fell from his bike and fractured his skull. His death hours later led to rumors that performance-enhancing drugs were in his system. Though certainly not the first instance of doping in the Olympic Games, Jensen's death serves as the starting point for Thomas M. Hunt's thoroughly researched, chronological history of the modern relationship of doping to the Olympics. Utilizing concepts derived from international relations theory, diplomatic history, and administrative law, this work connects the issue to global political relations.

During the Cold War, national governments had little reason to support effective anti-doping controls in the Olympics. Both the United States and the Soviet Union conceptualized power in sport as a means of impressing both friends and rivals abroad. The resulting medals race motivated nations on both sides of the Iron Curtain to allow drug regulatory powers to remain with private sport authorities. Given the costs involved in testing and the repercussions of drug scandals, these authorities tried to avoid the issue whenever possible. But toward the end of the Cold War, governments became more involved in the issue of testing. Having historically been a combined scientific, ethical, and political dilemma, obstacles to the elimination of doping in the Olympics are becoming less restrained by political inertia.

Customer Reviews (5)

Condescending
What a condescending, supercilious and smarmy piece of crap.Even the title is a slap at bodybuilders, many of whom work very hard to perfect their physiques.Would Klein have written similarly about B.K.S. Iyengar, the world's great yoga teacher, who practices yoga
6 hours a day?No, because he is a revered figure.But bodybuilders are an easy target, so safe to bash.The fact is that bodybuilders are smart, disciplined and have a highly developed skill.

Predetermined interpretation
As a lifter (but not a bodybuilder), and trained as an anthropologist, I expected this to be a fun and illuminating book, especially in light of some of the other reviews.I think this is a decent book--Klein writes well and captures gym flavor decently--but not a good one.It seems to me that Klein had already decided, prior to his empirical work, that bodybuilding was an outgrowth of or response to a sense of inadequacy.As far as I can tell, he never puts his interpretation to any kind of test: rather, he merely picks out those facts that support his interpretation and glosses them with a great deal of unsupported speculation.There is actually counterevidence to some of his claims in the book, but he never deals with it as such.All in all, I think it is a shame to spend seven years doing fieldwork only to rehearse a fairly standard bias against bodybuilders.If you read this book, balance it with another Roland S. Persson's short book Big Bad & Stupid or Big Good & Smart, which is a contrarily biased study.Persson's book is hard to find, but exposes some of the kinds of bias Klein adopts.

an interesting book for anybody who weight trains
When I was a little kid Use to marvel at many of the bodybuilders. Arnold Swartzengger was my childhood hero. I bought flex magazine regulary. I bought Weider training videos. When I was 12 years old I bought all this bodybuilding stuff and I wanted to look like Arnold when I grew up. Well somewhere along the way I lost interest in bodybuilding and got more interested in sports in high school. This book explains why young teenager boys 7are lured to bodybuilding because they are insecure and want to make up for it by being very muscular and strong. This book did an excellent job of explaining the lifestyle of the bodybuilder and the motives why they became bodybuilders. I found much of the information true, however on some occasions I think the author's analysis was flawed. For instance the author said something along the lines that bodybuilders just have big muscles, but don't have enough strength to lift very heavy weights. So they just look strong, unlike powerlifters who can lift very heavy weights. This is not true bodybuilders don't lift very heavy weights because they wan't to isolate muscles rather than try to lift the most weight. Many bodybuilders could bench press just as much as a powerlifter if they used bad form, arched their back,and wore bench shirts. Other than that this book was fantastic! This book reveals how bodybuilder is more like an addiction rather than dedication for many bodybuilders. Many bodybuilders couldn't stop lifting weights if they wanted to. It really is a depressing book to read. Bodybuilders spend as much as 8 hours a day in a gym some of that time training, some of socialicing. This book reveals how bodybuilders throw their life away to the gym and because of it they fail to develop the necessary friendships and social skills necessary for a healthy life. This book reveals bodybuilders are dirt poor and because of that they often resort to prostiution and selling steriods just to get by. I remeber my classmates telling me not to get into bodybuilding because most of them are gay, after reading this book I realize my friends were right and I am glad I didn't go into bodybuilding. This book reveals their is a lot more risks in bodybuilding besides steroids. Anyone who is seriously considering bodybuilding should read this book first so they know exactly the lifestyle they will be getting into.

Readable format, intriguing study.
Insightful examination of an extreme manifestation of societal tendency, and how this reflects on gender construction in our society as a whole.
I purchased this book for use as one of the (many!) references for my thesis (on gender role traits and food selection.)
While probably not for a lay audience, this book is written in a very easy-to-read style for a study. Although I have to do hours and hours of reading every single day, I still found that this book held my interest.

Big Words
I found this book to be interesting and true when it comes to bodybuilding.It is not always an easy read.It may be better suited for someone in the industry or at least an anthropologist ... Read more

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'Whannel is a foundational figure in the study of sports and the media. …For 20 years his writing has set a high standard …and it remains an inspiration to many' - Toby Miller, Professor of Cultural Studies, New York University, USA

Garry Whannel’s text Blowing the Whistle: The Politics of Sport broke new ground when it was first published in 1983. Its polemical discussion brought sports as cultural politics into the academic arena and set the agenda for a new wave of researchers.

Since the 1980s sport studies has matured both as an academic discipline and as a focus for mainstream political and public policy debate. In Culture, Politics and Sport: Blowing the Whistle, Revisited, Garry Whannel revisits the themes that led his first edition, assessing their 1980s context from our new millennium perspective, and exploring their continued relevance for contemporary sports academics.

This revisited volume will appeal to undergraduate students and researchers in sports and cultural studies.

Garry Whannel is Professor of Media Cultures and Director of the Centre for International Media Analysis at the University of Bedfordshire. His previous books include Media Sports Stars: Masculinities and Moralities, Fields in Vision: Television Sport and Cultural Transformation, Understanding Sport (co-authored with John Horne and Alan Tomlinson) and Understanding Television (co-edited with Andrew Goodwin), all published by Routledge.

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Customer Reviews (8)

fun book!
The book is fun and breezy.
Glad I bought a used copy, the service was great.

top 100 greatest sports movies
This book was a great compendium of the best sports movies. My husband and I agree with many of the choices and this book has also made us aware of several movies which we have not seen, but are now eager to watch based on the recomendations made.

Good Idea but Written by the Wrong People
The idea of putting together a book on the top 100 sports movies is a good one--but in this case it's written by a couple guys who spout opinions instead of offering much in the way of objective details.One is from NFL films and the other is a sports radio host.Though both claim to have sportswriting background, they didn't put in the work to write a detailed, fact-filled book in the subject.

Each film gets a couple pages which includes a plot summary and then some tidbits like "best line," "goof" and "reality check."It reads more like a Wikipedia entry than a book that has been well researched.They include a few opinions from athletes, but mostly it is their own spouting about what they think are good and bad films.

A number of facts are wrong.They admit in the opening that they don't include boxoffice results as a measure of a film's success.And they also "did not include the three highest-grossing sports movies of all time," which they list as The Waterboy,The Longest Yard remake and Talladega Nights, since they are "frat boy comedies."Huh?They don't put them in a book just because of the style of sports film?They also err because the animated film Cars (which they do include in a list of children's sports films) actually beat all the others at the boxoffice.

Some of their choices are so strange that in the end the reader concludes that there aren't 100 great sports films--there may be about 40 or 50 of them.They include a number of movies that most have never heard of and their rankings are so arbitrary that beyond the top 15 the order doesn't make much sense.

Bingo Long at number 39 yet they only rank Rudy #57? Silly fluff like The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh is included at #100? Then widely-loved films like White Men Can't Jump is only #66, beat by movies you have never heard of like Sugar (which is about Dominican Republic baseball players--and one of the authors admits that he used to live there covering baseball.Hmmm--wonder why it's on this list?). Who can take them seriously after seeing that?

They also appear very biased toward boxing movies (including a number of obscure ones) and have way too many recent movies on the list that are hardly instant classics. And they include movies that aren't really true "sports" films, such as The Hustler and Rounders. Meanwhile they slam a number of true sports films on their list as not being realistic enough--so why rank them on a top 100 list if the authors are going to demean them?

This would have worked better if written by a Sports Illustrated researcher who did the work involved to dig up great details and then present them in a more objective way.As it is, it's nice to skim through but doesn't provide much new insight into any of the films.

Very highly recommended for any sports or movie general-interest library
The Ultimate Book of Sports Movies features 100 sports films deemed the greatest of all time and adds in fun features, facts, and original contributions from over 100 superstars. The result is a survey that offers not just the top 100 films with movies from every sport in the field to synopsis and sidebars of information. Very highly recommended for any sports or movie general-interest library.

RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "IF YOU LOVE TO DISSECT SPORTS MOVIES YOU'LL BE IN HEAVEN WITH THIS BOOK!"
Any fanatical sports loving enthusiast who has also done due diligence off the "field" in his life... and waded through the millions of everyday movies made in the history of Hollywood... to find the few sports oriented "gems" and outright "classics"... will be rewarded for their efforts by buying this book. This is the *SUPER-BOWL-RING*... *HEAVYWEIGHT-CHAMPIONSHIP-BELT*... *GOLD-MEDAL*... compilation of sports movies. The authors have done an absolutely unbelievable job of culling through cinematic history... all the way back to the silent movie days... to pick the *ONE-HUNDRED-GREATEST-SPORTS-MOVIES-OF-ALL-TIME*! That alone could represent an ambitious individual's life work... but these sports loving authors... representing the underappreciated legions of men (and women) who not only want to rave... and rage... about the top one-hundred... but we also want to throw in a few piercing comments about which movies stink! But hold on! If you're like me... if this truly is our *DREAM-BOOK*... then it should be a printed version of what I/you want to represent the way we actually act in front of our TV... or in a movie theatre... or in a bar... in a "friendly" discussion/argument... with friends and foes alike. So if that's the case... how about:

*A LIST OF TEN ACTORS WHO ARE A DISGRACE TO ATHLETES AND SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO PLAY ONE*

*A LIST OF TEN ACTORS WHO PASS THE GRADE AS ATHLETES*

*HOW ABOUT THE BEST LINE IN EACH OF THE ONE-HUNDRED MOVIES?* An example in my favorite baseball movie of all-time "FIELD-OF-DREAMS" (Note: the author's admit it would be too easy to list, "IF YOU BUILD IT, HE WILL COME." Or, "HEY, IS THIS HEAVEN?" "NO, THIS IS IOWA." So they go right to the awe-inspiring poetry: "THE ONE CONSTANT THROUGH ALL THE YEARS, RAY, HAS BEEN BASEBALL. AMERICA HAS ROLLED BY LIKE AN ARMY OF STEAMROLLERS. IT HAS BEEN ERASED LIKE A BLACKBOARD, REBUILT AND ERASED AGAIN. BUT BASEBALL HAS MARKED THE TIME. THIS FIELD, THIS GAME-IT'S A PART OF OUR PAST, RAY. IT REMINDS US OF ALL THAT ONCE WAS GOOD AND IT COULD BE AGAIN. OH, PEOPLE WILL COME RAY. PEOPLE WILL MOST DEFINITELY COME."

Wow! There are many, many, places that the author's readily admit a box of Kleenex is required to watch certain movies. But if this is truly my/our dream book there should be more. How about:

*Reality Check* - where the director blew it in many of these classic movies such as when Shoeless Joe Jackson bats right and throws left. In real life Jackson threw right and batted left. (Just the type of things I/you yell at the screen all the time.)

*Lists of Sports Flicks For Kids*
*Great Sports Scenes In Non-Sports Movies*
*All-Time Movie Baseball Team*
*All-Time Movie Football Team*

Perhaps one of the most thought provoking features in the book is the *PIVOTAL-SCENE* section in each movie such as the one in *HE-GOT-GAME*: "AS THE TRASH TALK GROWS NASTIER, JAKE LOSES HIS EDGE-AND HIS ENERGY. JESUS IS BIGGER, FASTER AND, ULTIMATELY, MENTALLY STRONGER. THE ICIER JESUS GETS, THE MORE HE DOMINATES. IN FACT, HE IS USING THE LESSONS WE SAW JAKE TEACH HIM YEARS AGO. EVEN AS HE SLAYS HIS FATHER, HE IS VALIDATING HIM.

There are many other lists and endless bits of delicious sports and movie minutiae that are akin to precious jewels. This is not only a great read... but it will become a valuable reference book for years to come. It even recommends how "re-watchable" the flick is and ends each movie section with a famous personality telling you why that particular movie is his all-time favorite.

I highly recommend you buy this book because it has so much value on so many different levels.
... Read more

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From the beginning of time, humans have created and passed on to their children sports and games that teach skills, promote leisure, and encourage friendly competition. By studying these sports and games, we learn much about the culture and traditions of our ancestors. Sports and Games of Medieval Cultures focuses on those sports, games, and play rituals from across the globe that were invented and played during the time of the Middle Ages. Teachers, students, and sports enthusiasts will enjoy discovering the early origins of their favorite sports and games, and how they have evolved into the familiar versions of today. They will also learn about many games otherwise lost to history, and find instructions on how to adapt them for modern play.

As one of four books in the series Sports and Games Through History, it is divided into seven regions of the world including: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, The Middle East, North America, and Oceania. Each section describes sports, games, and play rituals for that region, and students can compare and contrast similar sports and games from different regions. Descriptions of equipment, with instructions on making or adapting the game pieces, are given for those students who would like to recreate the games for either multicultural assignments or for fun. This unique book belongs in every library's sports history and multicultural collections.

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This book is about expert coaches and the ways in which their individual life and career experiences lead to their personal beliefs about effective coaching. ... Read more

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Professional sports have become a prism through which Americans view complex issues such as race, gender, violence, and commercialism. The essays in this volume survey how sports have historically served as a mirror of society and how they continue to reflect major trends and issues within American culture. (20020401) ... Read more

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Despite the range of theoretical and methological positions adopted and the wide range of issues and topics related to advertising covered by cultural studies, relationships between sport and advertising have been largely overlooked.
Given its gobal popularity and its prevalence across the spectrum of cultural and commercial life it is not surprising that scholars interrogating the cultural politics of sport have begun to recognise advertising as an important site for the analysis of power relations, cultural politics and cultural repesentation.
Sport, Culture and Advertising presents a first step towards understanding the relationship between advertising and identity with a focus on sport. The book will be useful for scholars across a range of disciplines and will be of interest to students looking for a more critical examination of the commercial realm of sport. ... Read more

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This is the first book in English to examine the unique role football plays in French society. What is so French about French football, and what does football tell us about France? Have French football's club chairmen sold out to television, and how are top clubs being re-branded to attract an international audience?

The author traces the development of French football values throughout the twentieth century, and concludes with a discussion of the fallout from the World Cup 2002. Hare also looks at players' racist attitudes, and considers how the national football team reflects the multi-cultural population of France.

The result is a fascinating cultural, economic, and political history of French football. It is also an engrossing account of how the global marketplace is reshaping national identity and community values. ... Read more

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