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 a 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." |
A People's History of
Sports in the United States
250 Years of Politics, Protest, People, and Play
by Dave Zirin
New Press,
2008
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