Kategoria BISAC: Sports & Recreation >> History

Cheaters, gamblers, drugs, and violence. Sound like the latest action/adventure film? It is most likely playing in a stadium, ice rink, track field, basketball court, or ballpark near you. We're talking about the larger-than-life scandals that often surround and sometimes engulf the world of sports. Covering everything from the little leagues to college and professional sports, this indespensable book offers students an intriguing, readable guide to the most notorious scandals in American sports history.

Each chapter focuses on a specific category of scandal, including race-related,...

Contemporary life in the United States would be difficult to understand withouth examining the pivotal role sports have played in it. Controversies of the Sports World is designed to take readers of all ages into the heart of the tensions and conflicts that arise from the wide-ranging enterprise that now dominates the lives of millions of people. The controversies explored include such issues in sports as recruitment procedures, steroid and other drug use, discrimination against women, discrimination against African Americans, and violence.

Each of sixteen chapters...

Many of the sports and games played around the world today have their roots in the 18th and 19th centuries. Their history, detailed in Sports and Games of the 18th and 19th Centuries, provides us with an insight into the life and times of cultures across the globe. The dominance of Britain as a world power during this time had a particularly powerful effect in sports, as it organized many Western sports with specific rules, and repressed the traditional sports and games of regions it colonized such as Africa. Rules and equipment for all of the sports and games of this time period,...

Based on reports from 19th century explorers, museum artifacts, and other historical documents, the rules, equipment, and diagrams as they are currently understood are provided here for readers, along with suggestions for adapting these sports and games for modern times. Sports enthusiasts and students will find this volume a valuable resource for discovering the earliest beginnings of our modern-day sports.

Divided according to seven geopolitical regions of the world, Sports and Games of the Ancients describes the sports, games, and play of our earliest ancestors....

This book offers a new history of drug use in sport. It argues that the idea of taking drugs to enhance performance has not always been the crisis or 'evil' we now think it is. Instead, the late nineteenth century was a time of some experimentation and innovation largely unhindered by talk of cheating or health risks. By the interwar period, experiments had been modernised in the new laboratories of exercise physiologists. Still there was very little sense that this was contrary to the ethics or spirit of sport. Sports, drugs and science were closely linked for over half a century.

Breaking records and challenging the limits of human ability are central to much of our understanding of athletic track and field sports, with a world record title arguably as valued as an Olympic gold medal. Some particular limits and records take on greater significance, however, as in the case of the Four-Minute Mile which was roundly believed to be impossible until Roger Bannister shattered the illusion with half a second to spare in May 1954.

These essays look at the background of Bannister's achievement and the meaning that was ascribed to it by the media and the public at...

Beyond the Final Score takes an original look at the 2008 Beijing games within the context of the politics of sport in Asia....

The Renaissance was a period of extraordinary spirit and development that marked a critical stage in the history of sports and games. In Europe the development of a moneyed economy and more refined methods of timekeeping ushered in a new era of leisure and leisure-activity, in which the old tradition of the Shrove Tuesday Football match deepened in the cultural consciousness. In Asia, Sumo's gradual codification began to develop alongside ancestors of the modern game of hackey-sack. In North and South America, European explorers saw how traditional team sports and games such as lacrosse...

Though few outside of its native borders associate the great Celtic nation of Wales with the gritty history of pugilism, Welsh fist-fighters have made their talent and passion for boxing unmistakable for centuries. "Wales and Its Boxers" traces this triumphant spirit through the lives of village heroes and national superstars such as Peerless Jim Driscoll and Freddie Welsh, commenting along the way on compelling cultural issues like masculinity, Welsh identity, and the changing face of the ringed spectacle. Here you ll read the story of Jimmy Wilde, The Mighty Atom, who rose from a life in...

This book examines Chicago's long and glorious history of recreational and competitive sport, and as the home of the finest sporting events and most loyal fans in the United States. This indispensable collection surveys the essential events and main teams in the city's sports history--the Bears, the Cubs, the White Sox, the Black Hawks, and the Bulls--as well as great Chicago sports legends Red Grange, Michael Jordan, and others. The authors also examine more specialized sports such as racing, cycling, and women's baseball. In addition to examining the highlights of Chicago sport, "The...