POL SCI 198: Politics in Sports

In this long-awaited book from the rising superstar of sportswriting, whose blog "The Edge of Sports” is read each week by thousands of people across the country, Dave Zirin offers a riotously entertaining chronicle of larger-than-life sporting characters and dramatic contests and what amounts to an alternative history of the United States as seen through the games its people played. Through Zirin’s eyes, sports are never mere games, but a reflection of--and spur toward--the political conflicts that shape American society.

"National Identity and Global Sports Events looks at the significance of international sporting events and why they generate enormous audiences worldwide. Focusing on the Olympic Games and the men’s football (soccer) World Cup, the contributors examine the political, cultural, economic, and ideological influences that frame these events." - Google Books

"Selling the Five Rings outlines the rise of the Olympic movement from an envisioned instrument of peace and brotherhood to a transnational commercial giant of imposing power and influence. Using primary source documents such as minutes of the IOC General Sessions, minutes and reports of various IOC subcommittees and commissions concerned with finance, reports of key marketing agencies, and the letters and memoranda written to and by the major figures in Olympic history, the authors track the history of a fascinating global institution." - Book Jacket

"In a expose of the Olympic industry, Helen Jefferson Lenskyj goes beyond the media hype of international goodwill and spirited competition to uncover a darker side of the global Games. She reports on the pre- and post-Olympic impacts from recent host cities, bribery investigations and their outcomes, grassroots resistance movements, and the role of the mass media in the controversy." - Book Jacket

"Power, Politics, and the Olympic Games chronicles the influential individuals, groups, and events that have shaped the Olympics since the modern Games began in 1896. This insightful and highly readable work offers a critical, historical perspective of the political and social controversies that have surrounded the world's greatest sports spectacle." - Book Jacket