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A People's History of Sports in the United States: 250 Years of Politics, Protest, People, and Play
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. Half a century before Jackie Robinson was born, the black ballplayer Moses Fleetwood Walker brandished a revolver to keep racist fans at bay, then took his regular place in the lineup. In the midst of the Depression, when almost no black athletes were allowed on the U.S. Olympic team, athletes held a Counter Olympics where a third of the participants were African American. A People’s History of Sports in the United States is replete with surprises for seasoned sports fans, while anyone interested in history will be amazed by the connections Zirin draws between politics and pop flies. As Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop , puts it, “After you read him, you’ll never see sports the same way again.”
302 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2008
62 people are currently reading
968 people want to read
About the author
Dave Zirin
34 books141 followersNamed of the UTNE Reader’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World”, Dave Zirin writes about the politics of sports for the Nation Magazine. He is their first sports writer in 150 years of existence. Zirin is also the host of Sirius XM Radio’s popular weekly show, Edge of Sports Radio. He has been called “the best sportswriter in the United States,” by Robert Lipsyte. Dave Zirin is, in addition, a columnist for SLAM Magazine and the Progressive.
[from http://www.edgeofsports.com/bio.html]
[from http://www.edgeofsports.com/bio.html]
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
March 8, 2010
You know I really wanted to love this book...I think Zirin's short pieces in The Nation and elsewhere are terrific, and a book about how sports are political and how athletes have taken a stand for what they believe? A book telling the stories of those athletes who are often forgotten or marginalized because of their gender or race or sexual orientation (or all of the above)? Come on. This is such a Madeline book...what self-respecting leftist sports geek (*I ran competitive track for 14 years, did you know that?) wouldn't love this?
But honestly, I find Zirin's columns a lot more impressive than this book. The writing is kind of choppy--lots of short sections, interesting for sure but sometimes not tied together at all. And no conclusion to speak of: the book just ends.
The title's not totally accurate either...the first 150 of the 250 years are covered in a few pages, leaving the rest of the book for the last 100 years. And this is not so much a "People's History of Sports" (which to me implies an attempt at telling the stories of all US athletes who've been marginalized when we look at sports) as it is a history of the struggles of male African American athletes to desegregate big-name sports. Fascinating subject for a book for sure, and a huge step forward given that the dominant sports narrative is one of white male athletes and invisible privilege. But women athletes of all backgrounds seemed like footnotes here, and women of color even more so...as did any athletes who weren't white or African American (baseball in the WWII Japanese American incarceration camps gets a couple paragraphs, as does Scott Fujita...that's honestly about it).
I do think this is an important book, and there's value in reading it just for its coverage of the struggles I mention above. But truly doing justice to a people's history of sports in the US would take much more than 300 pages. This isn't bad for an overview...but I'll still take Zirin's columns over this book any day.
But honestly, I find Zirin's columns a lot more impressive than this book. The writing is kind of choppy--lots of short sections, interesting for sure but sometimes not tied together at all. And no conclusion to speak of: the book just ends.
The title's not totally accurate either...the first 150 of the 250 years are covered in a few pages, leaving the rest of the book for the last 100 years. And this is not so much a "People's History of Sports" (which to me implies an attempt at telling the stories of all US athletes who've been marginalized when we look at sports) as it is a history of the struggles of male African American athletes to desegregate big-name sports. Fascinating subject for a book for sure, and a huge step forward given that the dominant sports narrative is one of white male athletes and invisible privilege. But women athletes of all backgrounds seemed like footnotes here, and women of color even more so...as did any athletes who weren't white or African American (baseball in the WWII Japanese American incarceration camps gets a couple paragraphs, as does Scott Fujita...that's honestly about it).
I do think this is an important book, and there's value in reading it just for its coverage of the struggles I mention above. But truly doing justice to a people's history of sports in the US would take much more than 300 pages. This isn't bad for an overview...but I'll still take Zirin's columns over this book any day.
November 16, 2019
This book deserves to be widely read – my fairly restrained rating is explained below; bear with me please. The (political) left has, for too long written sport off as a distraction from the real work of politics, as the world of bread and circuses making capitalism and the state safe for those in power – a view that sits somewhere between patronising and a foolish failure to recognise the vital role that the everyday life of working people plays in their consciousness and awareness. We don’t have to go far to hear contempt expressed for the plutocrats who own major sports teams, regret over what wholesale injection of outrageous amounts of money has done to athletes (while recognising that it has allowed many of them to hone their craft), rejection of the corporate circuses that are the global mega-events of various world cups and Olympic games, superbowls and other (to my mind) nausea inducing moments of ostentation. Yet, for the most part, the Left treats sport as a sideshow to the real world of politics – something that may surprise the working people of Atlanta expelled from their homes to build an ‘athlete’s village’ that priced them out of their communities, the people of London’s East End who have lost public space to a corporate enclave that is becoming a security island testing new surveillance technology, the Bangladeshi workers making big label sports clothes and who die in sweatshop fires while the labels they work for cream huge profits, and countless others who suffer at the hands of the sport industries and their corporate masters. Although this book has been in my to-read pile for an awfully long time, I was looking forward to this history of US sports by one of the sharpest of the current sports writers (and one of the few openly asserting a political position from well to the left of centre) in a series launched by Howard Zinn, whose ‘people’s history’ series has been consistently impressive.
That said, I may be the wrong person to legitimately pass too much comment on this book – given that I am professional sports historian (yip, that’s my job, as I hear so many chaps out there sigh with envy). First up, this should probably be entitled ‘A People’s History of Sports in the United States during the 20th Century’, given that we reach that period after only 31 pages (leaving almost all of the remaining 230 pages to this period). Now, I accept that, the team sports that are the (not exclusive) focus of Zirin’s discussion here trend to have reached their mature forms in the 20th century, but I was surprised by the absence of, for instance, Tom Molineax – the former Virginia slave turned prize fighter who dominated that sport in Britain in the early 19th century, surely worth a mention in the context of ante-bellum sport.
I accept that all authors need to make really difficult decisions about what stays in our texts and what goes out, and that Zirin is writing for a broad audience – and to his credit the opening line of his acknowledgements recognise the many things that “ended up on the cutting room floor” followed by a call to petition the publishers for a Volume II. What’s more, I do not want to appear as if I am one of those anoraks (sports history nerds – for non-British readers) playing at anachronist shouting ‘but what about’ from the corner, so Dave, consider this a ‘what should be in the next volume plea’. Many of the key things are here – the stories of Muhammad Ali, Jack Johnson, the 1968 Olympics, the difficult desegregation of baseball and the disastrous effect on the Negro Leagues, the reactionary politics of the US Olympic Committee (especially but not only Avery Brundage in his support for the Berlin Olympics as fascist celebration), the active marginalisation of women.
Furthermore, I recognise the faultline that is the politics of race that runs through US popular culture, the marginalisation and oppression of African-Americans, the conflation of urban injustice, race and class that is encapsulated in so much African American life – and as a result the prominent place that politics of race needs to play in histories of American sport. That said, race often becomes African American, so there are groups whose absence is marked – aside from the great Roberto Clemente, Latinos do not play a prominent part in the book despite the important tales of US imperialism that are encapsulated in baseball farming in the Caribbean. There are, as far as I could see, only two references to Native American athletes (Jim Thorpe & Billy MiIlls) despite the prominent place of Native athletes in early 20th century baseball and the vital role of, say, the Carlisle Indian School’s football team in the development of the game in the early 20th century, or the way the Fort Shaw Indian School ‘girls’ basketball team dominated the game at the St Louis Olympics in 1904 – beating the US National team to become ‘champions of the world’ and the ‘aboriginal days’ and the 1904 Olympics designed to assert a naturalised politics of whiteness-as-logical-dominance. These instances are well known to sports historians, but have become obscured in broader popular discourse, and are, I think, things followers of contemporary sport need to know. It was good to see, however, good treatment of the place of baseball in the camps where Japanese-Americans were interned during WW2 (surely one of the great times of shame in US history).
Women play an ambiguous role in the book, but remain relatively marginal – which in a sense is a fair reflection of the world of sport. It doesn’t however help when slips of the keyboard (I hope) mean that we are told on p199 that Arthur Ashe was “the first person of African descent to win a grand slam tennis title” – the US Open in 1968 – when we already been told on p 122 that Althea Gibson “won both Wimbeldon and the US Open on her way to becoming the first African American women to be named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year”; surely an perplexing definition of ‘African descent’ if it excludes the Harlem born and raised Gibson. That said, many of the key moments in assertion of women in the masculinist world of sport are here – the women’s professional baseball league of the 1940s and ‘50s, the politically savvy organising of one of sport’s highest profile white working class women, Billie Jean King, the complex corporate place of late 1990s women’s soccer, Althea Gibson’s challenge to the class and race politics of 1950s tennis. I suspect, however, that Zirin’s focus on team sports exacerbated the relative exclusion of women from this ‘people’s history’.
More surprising is a seeming exclusion or downplaying of class as a primary dynamic – or perhaps an obvious focus on the white working class; King is the only obviously white working class athlete who plays a major role in the book. This may be the product of a team sport focus, but is also likely to be part of the corporatisation of US sport and distinctive place of college sport in the US sports system.
Finally, Dave if you do get to do a Volume 2, please include a further reading list – there is an awful lot that is out there (so much more than appears in the, sadly, quite limited reference list).
I’m left with two problems in writing a commentary however – the first is identified earlier, I do this stuff for a living as an academic/professional historian of sport and place myself firmly on the Left so much of what I read here I had encountered before leading to the ‘but-what-about’ response. This probably accounts for only ‘liking’ this – not a more effusive response. In other words, I think I was disappointed in part because of my expectation, and in part because I suspect I am not the intended audience, which leads to my second concern. I wonder who the intended audience is; I hope it is widely read by sports fans and by people on the left but wonder how many have/will (all should!).
So, please read this – but remember, as Zirin implies in his acknowledgement, this barely scratches the surface of a(n alternative) people’s history of US sport.
That said, I may be the wrong person to legitimately pass too much comment on this book – given that I am professional sports historian (yip, that’s my job, as I hear so many chaps out there sigh with envy). First up, this should probably be entitled ‘A People’s History of Sports in the United States during the 20th Century’, given that we reach that period after only 31 pages (leaving almost all of the remaining 230 pages to this period). Now, I accept that, the team sports that are the (not exclusive) focus of Zirin’s discussion here trend to have reached their mature forms in the 20th century, but I was surprised by the absence of, for instance, Tom Molineax – the former Virginia slave turned prize fighter who dominated that sport in Britain in the early 19th century, surely worth a mention in the context of ante-bellum sport.
I accept that all authors need to make really difficult decisions about what stays in our texts and what goes out, and that Zirin is writing for a broad audience – and to his credit the opening line of his acknowledgements recognise the many things that “ended up on the cutting room floor” followed by a call to petition the publishers for a Volume II. What’s more, I do not want to appear as if I am one of those anoraks (sports history nerds – for non-British readers) playing at anachronist shouting ‘but what about’ from the corner, so Dave, consider this a ‘what should be in the next volume plea’. Many of the key things are here – the stories of Muhammad Ali, Jack Johnson, the 1968 Olympics, the difficult desegregation of baseball and the disastrous effect on the Negro Leagues, the reactionary politics of the US Olympic Committee (especially but not only Avery Brundage in his support for the Berlin Olympics as fascist celebration), the active marginalisation of women.
Furthermore, I recognise the faultline that is the politics of race that runs through US popular culture, the marginalisation and oppression of African-Americans, the conflation of urban injustice, race and class that is encapsulated in so much African American life – and as a result the prominent place that politics of race needs to play in histories of American sport. That said, race often becomes African American, so there are groups whose absence is marked – aside from the great Roberto Clemente, Latinos do not play a prominent part in the book despite the important tales of US imperialism that are encapsulated in baseball farming in the Caribbean. There are, as far as I could see, only two references to Native American athletes (Jim Thorpe & Billy MiIlls) despite the prominent place of Native athletes in early 20th century baseball and the vital role of, say, the Carlisle Indian School’s football team in the development of the game in the early 20th century, or the way the Fort Shaw Indian School ‘girls’ basketball team dominated the game at the St Louis Olympics in 1904 – beating the US National team to become ‘champions of the world’ and the ‘aboriginal days’ and the 1904 Olympics designed to assert a naturalised politics of whiteness-as-logical-dominance. These instances are well known to sports historians, but have become obscured in broader popular discourse, and are, I think, things followers of contemporary sport need to know. It was good to see, however, good treatment of the place of baseball in the camps where Japanese-Americans were interned during WW2 (surely one of the great times of shame in US history).
Women play an ambiguous role in the book, but remain relatively marginal – which in a sense is a fair reflection of the world of sport. It doesn’t however help when slips of the keyboard (I hope) mean that we are told on p199 that Arthur Ashe was “the first person of African descent to win a grand slam tennis title” – the US Open in 1968 – when we already been told on p 122 that Althea Gibson “won both Wimbeldon and the US Open on her way to becoming the first African American women to be named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year”; surely an perplexing definition of ‘African descent’ if it excludes the Harlem born and raised Gibson. That said, many of the key moments in assertion of women in the masculinist world of sport are here – the women’s professional baseball league of the 1940s and ‘50s, the politically savvy organising of one of sport’s highest profile white working class women, Billie Jean King, the complex corporate place of late 1990s women’s soccer, Althea Gibson’s challenge to the class and race politics of 1950s tennis. I suspect, however, that Zirin’s focus on team sports exacerbated the relative exclusion of women from this ‘people’s history’.
More surprising is a seeming exclusion or downplaying of class as a primary dynamic – or perhaps an obvious focus on the white working class; King is the only obviously white working class athlete who plays a major role in the book. This may be the product of a team sport focus, but is also likely to be part of the corporatisation of US sport and distinctive place of college sport in the US sports system.
Finally, Dave if you do get to do a Volume 2, please include a further reading list – there is an awful lot that is out there (so much more than appears in the, sadly, quite limited reference list).
I’m left with two problems in writing a commentary however – the first is identified earlier, I do this stuff for a living as an academic/professional historian of sport and place myself firmly on the Left so much of what I read here I had encountered before leading to the ‘but-what-about’ response. This probably accounts for only ‘liking’ this – not a more effusive response. In other words, I think I was disappointed in part because of my expectation, and in part because I suspect I am not the intended audience, which leads to my second concern. I wonder who the intended audience is; I hope it is widely read by sports fans and by people on the left but wonder how many have/will (all should!).
So, please read this – but remember, as Zirin implies in his acknowledgement, this barely scratches the surface of a(n alternative) people’s history of US sport.
April 29, 2022
mid college english class book
November 28, 2008
Americans do not live or work in a vacuum, and this book reminds us that we do not play in a vacuum either.
Zirin's book is part of a series based on "A People's History of the United States," Howard Zinn's alternative history told through previously unheard voices. Zirin, Press Action's 2005 and 2006 Sportswriter of the Year, sportswriter for edgeofsports.com, and The Nation's first sportswriter in its history, uses uncommon connections, a wealth of quotations new and old, and a left-leaning narrative to trace the interplay of sports, politics, and social movements in modern America.
He begins by reminding us that sports has uses far from today's entertainment and business worlds. One early function was to teach agricultural skills. Another, perhaps more nefarious, was to turn civilians into troops at the ready. "But [English King] James's view that sports were essential was also quite mercenary: 'The other inconvenience is that this prohibition [against sports] barreth the common and meaner sort of people from using such exercises as may make their bodies more able for warre, when Wee or our successors shall have occasion to use them.' This is the seventeenth-century version of Dwight Eisenhower's famed dictum, 'The true mission of American sports is to prepare young men for war.'"
Religion also found its uses for sports. "Instead of seeing sports as an immoral waste of time and an express lane to sin, [muscular Christianity] began to separate 'good sports,' which taught obeisance to authority, values, godliness . . . from bad sports such as cockfighting and rat-baiting."
After an overview of sports in early world history, Zirin focuses each chapter on a particular time in twentieth and twenty-first century America. Social and political movements like civil rights and Communism; issues like class, racism, sexism, doping, and sports economics; and the continuing interplay between sports, war, and discontent are woven throughout. Baseball makes an appearance almost everywhere, with its separate leagues for blacks and women, long-lasting racism, and chattel-like "reserve clause." Readers may begin to see the long-lamented Series drought for the Boston Red Sox (until 2004) in an entirely different light after Zirin's account of the team's long and shameful struggle to maintain segregation. For those of us raised in the era of Mike Tyson, who is never mentioned in the book, it may be impossible to see boxing as simply a brutal sport after reading what Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and Muhammad Ali endured, meant, and accomplished.
At its best, the book traces deep roots of sports like baseball, NASCAR, boxing, tennis, and football. It assesses each sport's relation to or complicity in various causes and injustices over the years, as it does the impact of and on the athletes themselves. Throughout is the debate over what behavior is to be expected of athletes – professional or collegiate or Olympian -- in an unjust world.
A final chapter touches on recent events. When the Superdome sheltered Hurricane Katrina victims, it was the first time that most had ever entered the expensive stadium, one originally built with public funds that might have gone to reinforce the levies and recently rebuilt as a higher priority than the plight of any sheltering resident. Sports and politics and prejudice: they span every chapter.
Although Zirin can be heavy-handed, reaching beyond sports to air an injustice that particularly rankles, he also helps us see light and shadow. Where the integration of baseball was a righteous step, not to be argued with, the dissolution of the Negro Leagues had real consequences for black-owned businesses.
Zirin's book starts out tightly woven, becoming more episodic toward the end. Although irony abounds, the only bit of humor comes from quotations, and it is simply the distance we have come that allows us to find that humor. An 1878 issue of American Christian Review predicted a 12-step tragedy for any woman playing croquet, moving from "1. A social party" to "3. A croquet party" to "10. Poverty and discontent. 11. Shame and disgrace. 12. Ruin."
A good book changes our perception of something well known or something never before considered. In sport as in history, it turns out you cannot be a spectator without being a participant.
Zirin's book is part of a series based on "A People's History of the United States," Howard Zinn's alternative history told through previously unheard voices. Zirin, Press Action's 2005 and 2006 Sportswriter of the Year, sportswriter for edgeofsports.com, and The Nation's first sportswriter in its history, uses uncommon connections, a wealth of quotations new and old, and a left-leaning narrative to trace the interplay of sports, politics, and social movements in modern America.
He begins by reminding us that sports has uses far from today's entertainment and business worlds. One early function was to teach agricultural skills. Another, perhaps more nefarious, was to turn civilians into troops at the ready. "But [English King] James's view that sports were essential was also quite mercenary: 'The other inconvenience is that this prohibition [against sports] barreth the common and meaner sort of people from using such exercises as may make their bodies more able for warre, when Wee or our successors shall have occasion to use them.' This is the seventeenth-century version of Dwight Eisenhower's famed dictum, 'The true mission of American sports is to prepare young men for war.'"
Religion also found its uses for sports. "Instead of seeing sports as an immoral waste of time and an express lane to sin, [muscular Christianity] began to separate 'good sports,' which taught obeisance to authority, values, godliness . . . from bad sports such as cockfighting and rat-baiting."
After an overview of sports in early world history, Zirin focuses each chapter on a particular time in twentieth and twenty-first century America. Social and political movements like civil rights and Communism; issues like class, racism, sexism, doping, and sports economics; and the continuing interplay between sports, war, and discontent are woven throughout. Baseball makes an appearance almost everywhere, with its separate leagues for blacks and women, long-lasting racism, and chattel-like "reserve clause." Readers may begin to see the long-lamented Series drought for the Boston Red Sox (until 2004) in an entirely different light after Zirin's account of the team's long and shameful struggle to maintain segregation. For those of us raised in the era of Mike Tyson, who is never mentioned in the book, it may be impossible to see boxing as simply a brutal sport after reading what Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and Muhammad Ali endured, meant, and accomplished.
At its best, the book traces deep roots of sports like baseball, NASCAR, boxing, tennis, and football. It assesses each sport's relation to or complicity in various causes and injustices over the years, as it does the impact of and on the athletes themselves. Throughout is the debate over what behavior is to be expected of athletes – professional or collegiate or Olympian -- in an unjust world.
A final chapter touches on recent events. When the Superdome sheltered Hurricane Katrina victims, it was the first time that most had ever entered the expensive stadium, one originally built with public funds that might have gone to reinforce the levies and recently rebuilt as a higher priority than the plight of any sheltering resident. Sports and politics and prejudice: they span every chapter.
Although Zirin can be heavy-handed, reaching beyond sports to air an injustice that particularly rankles, he also helps us see light and shadow. Where the integration of baseball was a righteous step, not to be argued with, the dissolution of the Negro Leagues had real consequences for black-owned businesses.
Zirin's book starts out tightly woven, becoming more episodic toward the end. Although irony abounds, the only bit of humor comes from quotations, and it is simply the distance we have come that allows us to find that humor. An 1878 issue of American Christian Review predicted a 12-step tragedy for any woman playing croquet, moving from "1. A social party" to "3. A croquet party" to "10. Poverty and discontent. 11. Shame and disgrace. 12. Ruin."
A good book changes our perception of something well known or something never before considered. In sport as in history, it turns out you cannot be a spectator without being a participant.
September 19, 2016
I really wanted to like this, but it was pretty much any other ol' history book. I mean, I enjoyed the progressive focus, but it didn't seem to say much that I didn't already know. Didn't leave with any new perspectives or anything. I hate for-profit sports as much as I always have. They suck. People watch them on the sofa, and money gets wasted. And it's sexist. And it's racist. Whoopty doo.
January 7, 2017
This book was written the way Dave Zirin talks. Calm and factual builds to highly amused rage at just the sheer obvious awfulness of it all. If you're going to be entertained by sports, read this and know what you're getting into.
June 12, 2023
I was only reading parts of this book when I began to realize I was reading most of it. Hence a review. Despite being drawn in, I only thought this book so-so. I agree with its theses that there is, and has been historically, a lot of racism and sexism, in sports. As I read, however, I become more aware of its flaws. I think the problems stemmed from:
1) The book covered too much ground and, as a result, there was little analysis and little depth;
2) Although presented chronologically, I felt it wandered from topic to topic, sometimes focusing on sports and sometimes on political history. The book was better when the focus was on sports and not general politics;
3) Its statistics were often cherry-picked. There is a section, for example, on the age of female Olympic gymnasts, and to prove the point we get the ages of two gymnasts in 1956, 0ne in 1972, the average age of the US team in 1976 plus one on a different team and then the average of the US team in 1992. Picking one or two different gymnasts in any of those years could have produced a different result.
Generally the book seemed to randomly pick what was mentioned and what wasn't. Why, for example, were only two of the four players integrating professional American football in 1946 mentioned? Or only one of the two Walker brothers who integrated major league baseball in the 1884 mentioned? Not every detail is important, but I thought this this book skipped a lot of them while including lengthy quotes that could have been better summarized.
There are some interesting stories I didn't know, especially about which athletes were socially conscious heroes and which were not. Curt Flood a hero, Michael Jordan not so much.
I have read better books on racism in sports. They always focused a season or a game and I think this book would have been better if it had been more focused, too.
1) The book covered too much ground and, as a result, there was little analysis and little depth;
2) Although presented chronologically, I felt it wandered from topic to topic, sometimes focusing on sports and sometimes on political history. The book was better when the focus was on sports and not general politics;
3) Its statistics were often cherry-picked. There is a section, for example, on the age of female Olympic gymnasts, and to prove the point we get the ages of two gymnasts in 1956, 0ne in 1972, the average age of the US team in 1976 plus one on a different team and then the average of the US team in 1992. Picking one or two different gymnasts in any of those years could have produced a different result.
Generally the book seemed to randomly pick what was mentioned and what wasn't. Why, for example, were only two of the four players integrating professional American football in 1946 mentioned? Or only one of the two Walker brothers who integrated major league baseball in the 1884 mentioned? Not every detail is important, but I thought this this book skipped a lot of them while including lengthy quotes that could have been better summarized.
There are some interesting stories I didn't know, especially about which athletes were socially conscious heroes and which were not. Curt Flood a hero, Michael Jordan not so much.
I have read better books on racism in sports. They always focused a season or a game and I think this book would have been better if it had been more focused, too.
September 30, 2022
Zirin follows Zinn. Both books are very much in the same polemical and political vein. That being said, this is an enjoyable and informative read. Zirin, who clearly loves sports himself and has made a living therefrom as sports editor of The Nation, chronicles the corruption and racism that has plagued sports in the U.S. from the beginning up to the present time. Within this context it is fairly easy to guess who the heroes and the villains are going to be. I won't list those, since they can mostly be guessed. I will only note that much to my surprise, a game at which I was present, the 1972 University of Washington spring football game, during which an anti-war announcement was read. Written and endorsed by the University of Washington team under the leadership of quarterback Sonny Sixkiller (my all-time favorite football name), this caused quite a shouting match between the student section, largely anti-war, and the rather right-wing "townsfolk," who were very much on the other side both politically and specially. Moments like these, rather than the most famous sporting accomplishments are stressed throughout . . . and there are plenty of such moments.
September 25, 2023
Lisez ce livre!!!!
En tant que grande appréciatrice du sport professionnel et amateur, j'ai découvert de nombreuses facettes de cette activité qui prend beaucoup de place dans ma vie. À travers une perspective critique, l'auteur met en lumière les luttes de différents athlètes et professionnels du sport (entraîneur.e.s, journalistes sportifs, etc) qui ont su politiser la pratique du sport afin de le démocratiser, mais aussi l'utiliser pour faire avancer des causes sociales. Zirin n'oublie personne ; lutte des personnes noires, des femmes, des homosexuel.le.s, il prend le temps de relier les apports de chacune des luttes entre elle ce qui ajoute à la pertinence de son récit. À garder à son chevet quand on a besoin d'une dose de motivation pour aller courir son petit 5km un mercredi gris de semaine.
En tant que grande appréciatrice du sport professionnel et amateur, j'ai découvert de nombreuses facettes de cette activité qui prend beaucoup de place dans ma vie. À travers une perspective critique, l'auteur met en lumière les luttes de différents athlètes et professionnels du sport (entraîneur.e.s, journalistes sportifs, etc) qui ont su politiser la pratique du sport afin de le démocratiser, mais aussi l'utiliser pour faire avancer des causes sociales. Zirin n'oublie personne ; lutte des personnes noires, des femmes, des homosexuel.le.s, il prend le temps de relier les apports de chacune des luttes entre elle ce qui ajoute à la pertinence de son récit. À garder à son chevet quand on a besoin d'une dose de motivation pour aller courir son petit 5km un mercredi gris de semaine.
July 20, 2019
A Sports Eye Opener
This work clearly shows that the world of sports cannot be divorced from other aspects of society, especially the world of politics. Sports reflects what is going on in our society, though sometimes in a subtle way. The inequities, biases, and prejudices that exist in our society do carry over into the sports world. In the world of sports we can see the unfair treatment of women, the enduring commercialization in our society, the persistence of racism, the selfishness and greed of certain athletes, the increasing disparity between the rich and the poor, and the inordinate influence of the business class. It is not a surprise that our democratic failures as a country are reflected in our various sports activities. Ed Donato
This work clearly shows that the world of sports cannot be divorced from other aspects of society, especially the world of politics. Sports reflects what is going on in our society, though sometimes in a subtle way. The inequities, biases, and prejudices that exist in our society do carry over into the sports world. In the world of sports we can see the unfair treatment of women, the enduring commercialization in our society, the persistence of racism, the selfishness and greed of certain athletes, the increasing disparity between the rich and the poor, and the inordinate influence of the business class. It is not a surprise that our democratic failures as a country are reflected in our various sports activities. Ed Donato
December 5, 2021
Dave Zirin's "A People's History of Sports in the United States: 250 Years of Politics, Protest, People, and Play" is not a feel-good collection of sports anecdotes. Instead, it is a blistering, scathing look at how politics have interacted with and affected sports throughout America's existence. Radical athletes populate pages of the book, along with radical sportswriters and radical fans. Zirin's book is the one to seek out if you want some objective truth to balance what you know about American sports.
December 28, 2024
A very worthy entrant in the "People's History" series inspired by Howard Zinn. Zirin writes with great insight, and occasional humor, at the nexus of history, politics, and sports since the dawning of the U.S. It is also a compelling call to action for those involved in sports, and sports fandom, to make sports more inclusive and a force for bettering rather than dividing humanity. Zirin makes a compelling, entertaining case in a work that can provide context for a great many history and biographies on U.S. sports and sports figures.
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July 4, 2021This is an accessible and expansive history of sports in the US, focusing on how sports have always been a political space for protest and resistance. Although an enjoyable read overall and the chapters cohere well thematically, each one is comprised of many short sections and long block quotes in each, so the style, flow, argument are a bit constrained. That said, it covers a lot of ground and is a useful read.
August 21, 2017
There is a lot of important history from the sports world presented in this book that is insightful and relevant to today's world. It was a hard book to get into, but once I got about half way through I couldn't put it down. I loved the quotes from sports writers and officials through our history. The format was a little choppy and made it hard to read at times.
December 31, 2024
It’s amazing how interesting the history of sports can be. Even as someone with no practical knowledge of sports, the history of its political usage throughout the US was incredible. The book was conversational and informative and easy to read. I wish some parts were explained a little more, but it was a lot to cover so I understand some cuts were made.
August 14, 2021
Very well researched and I really enjoyed the forceful writing style. I know that racism and sexism and the rich and poor divide exist in this country, but to have it carefully explained in the world of sports was well worth the read.
August 18, 2023
3.5/5 stars. Decent history on the struggles of professional athletes throughout US history. Would have preferred a ratio of more sports to social commentary. Also would have liked to see much more recent labor disputes in some of the major sports leagues.
February 9, 2018
this actually had a lot of the same information from "whats my name, fool" but a good read none-the-less.
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March 20, 2021More required reading on the history of sports in the US.
Read
September 12, 2021PPP
October 4, 2022
Beaucoup de liens entre sports et politiques expliqués de façon parfois un peu trop rapide.
January 19, 2023
Fantastic history of labor rights and racial equality as it relates to sports.
February 15, 2023
the sports history class slay! yay sports!
May 7, 2023
C’est un essai riche et intéressant, mais qui ne remplit pas tout à fait ses promesses à mon avis…
August 25, 2023
A sports book written by a socialist? I'll take it.
September 22, 2023
This book made me think.
October 12, 2024
Extensive but somehow I wish had more details. More of a collection of short stories than a history
I liked the activism theme and the unhesitant addressing of race, gender, class across it
I liked the activism theme and the unhesitant addressing of race, gender, class across it
December 31, 2011
if you are a leftist and a sports fan then this is a book for you. of course, you probably have already come across dave zirin... like dave, i do not think sports is merely a haven of reaction and distraction and this book has some great examples of the uplifting and community building nature of sports. the story of the gay olympics in 82 and 86 is amazing (and worthy of a book all on its own) as well as how jack scott tried to turn athletics into something liberatory at oberlin college in the 1970's. dave doesn't see the world through rose colored glasses though. there is tons wrong with sports as there is also tons wrong with society at large. but as this book shows, sports can also be a place where we shine. a place where we can stand a little taller and fight for what is right and be heard at distances much further than our voices usually travel. and that is when athletes, as well as people in general, are at our best. sports is what we make it. and it is not immutable for all time. or as i am fond of saying, what people have created, people can change.
as a tangentially related side note, i am from houston and grew up going to the astrodome. it was pleasing to me to see houston (and the houston area) feature so prominently. ali fought terrel at the astrodome all the while shouting 'what's my name, fool?' billie jean king king destroyed the chauvinist pig bobby riggs in the battle of the sexes. the dome also became a home for many katrina refugees after the hurricane in new orleans. also jack johnson the amazing fighter came from just down the road in galveston. and babe didrickson one of the first and most athletically gifted woman trailblazer was from port arthur. even calvin murphy (who most people my age know from announcing rockets games) made an appearance when he stood up for more black players at his small catholic college in upstate new york. ali made another appearance in houston when he defied the draft board and stood in front of a federal judge to explain his actions. some houstonians even picketed outside with 'draft beer, not ali' signs... so for those also interested in a little houston area texana, pick up this book and remember these things when astrodome is discussed for a possible demolition...
as a tangentially related side note, i am from houston and grew up going to the astrodome. it was pleasing to me to see houston (and the houston area) feature so prominently. ali fought terrel at the astrodome all the while shouting 'what's my name, fool?' billie jean king king destroyed the chauvinist pig bobby riggs in the battle of the sexes. the dome also became a home for many katrina refugees after the hurricane in new orleans. also jack johnson the amazing fighter came from just down the road in galveston. and babe didrickson one of the first and most athletically gifted woman trailblazer was from port arthur. even calvin murphy (who most people my age know from announcing rockets games) made an appearance when he stood up for more black players at his small catholic college in upstate new york. ali made another appearance in houston when he defied the draft board and stood in front of a federal judge to explain his actions. some houstonians even picketed outside with 'draft beer, not ali' signs... so for those also interested in a little houston area texana, pick up this book and remember these things when astrodome is discussed for a possible demolition...
August 6, 2011
A lot of info. A lot of detailed info for my not very detail oriented brain. Bookclub motivation proves valuable. There was some general sports ideas and then some focus on indivual events and people. Like the myth of meritocracy. Like the idea of sports as a form of social control...one that would orient people towards safe activities and discipline, pacify angry workers, and offput radicalism.
There was a lot of baseball. Baseball as a hark back to an agricultural past. Soldiers in WW1 playing baseball to pass the time. Rich people wanted their sons to play baseball so they would become less pale. There was a lot of civil rights struggle mirrored by baseball. The baseball commisioner tried to pass a black man, Charley Grant, off as an indian named Tokohoma. Then all Charley Grant's friends came to watch him play. Sick.
There was a guy named Moses Fleetwood Walker who integrateted baseball before Jackie Robinson. He was a seperatist who wanted to lead a back to Africa movement. He talked about the "incurability of white supremacy." Interesting because I always want to believe in people and that things are possible.
Muhammad Ali was disrepected by people and media who called him his slave name instead of his chosen religous name. Sick. One thing that unifies oppression for me is the need for everyone to be called what they want to be called. The naming and the unnaming.
I liked the Olympic protesters. People giving black power fists on the podium. I liked the teammates who banded together in antiwar communion. I liked the tennis stars who were POWerful women.
Notes: Warhol exhibit on masculinty and sports, being in the huddle, Chitra Ganesh, little faces on big white papers
There was a lot of baseball. Baseball as a hark back to an agricultural past. Soldiers in WW1 playing baseball to pass the time. Rich people wanted their sons to play baseball so they would become less pale. There was a lot of civil rights struggle mirrored by baseball. The baseball commisioner tried to pass a black man, Charley Grant, off as an indian named Tokohoma. Then all Charley Grant's friends came to watch him play. Sick.
There was a guy named Moses Fleetwood Walker who integrateted baseball before Jackie Robinson. He was a seperatist who wanted to lead a back to Africa movement. He talked about the "incurability of white supremacy." Interesting because I always want to believe in people and that things are possible.
Muhammad Ali was disrepected by people and media who called him his slave name instead of his chosen religous name. Sick. One thing that unifies oppression for me is the need for everyone to be called what they want to be called. The naming and the unnaming.
I liked the Olympic protesters. People giving black power fists on the podium. I liked the teammates who banded together in antiwar communion. I liked the tennis stars who were POWerful women.
Notes: Warhol exhibit on masculinty and sports, being in the huddle, Chitra Ganesh, little faces on big white papers
February 20, 2017
Excellent look at sports and labor relations throughout US history. I'd be interested to read a follow-up / new edition that takes into account the numerous athletes (and coaches!) who have spoken out in the world of politics in the last decade.
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