American Sport Culture

Since the nineteenth century the USA has served as an international model for business, lifestyle and sporting success. Yet whilst the language of sport seems to be universal, American sports culture remains highly distinctive. Why is this so? How should we understand American sport? What can we learn about America by analyzing its sports culture? Understanding American Sports offers discussion and critical analysis of the everyday sporting and leisure activities of ‘ordinary’ Americans as well as the ‘big three’ (football, baseball, basketball), and elite sports heroes. Throughout the book, the development of American sport is linked to political, social, gender and economic issues, as well as the orientations and cultures of the multilayered American society with its manifold regional, ethnic, social, and gendered diversities. Topics covered include: American college sports the influence of immigrant populations the unique status of American football the emergence of women’s sport in the USA With co-authors from either side of the Atlantic, Understanding American Sports uses both the outsider’s perspective and that of the insider to explain American sports culture. With its extensive use of examples and illustrations, this is an engrossing and informative resource for all students of sports studies and American culture.

Sport dominates television and the mass media. Politics and business are a-bustle with sports metaphors. Endorsements by athletes sell us products. "Home run," "slam dunk," and the rest of the vocabulary of sport color daily conversation. Even in times of crisis and emergency, the media reports the scores and highlights. Marky Dyreson delves into how our obsession with sport came into being with a close look at coverage of the Olympic Games between 1896 and 1912. How people reported and consumed information on the Olympics offers insight into how sport entered the heart of American culture as part of an impetus for social reform. Political leaders came to believe in the power of sport to revitalize the "republican experiment." Sport could instill a new sense of national identity that would forge a new sense of community and a healthy political order while at the same time linking America's intellectual and power elite with the experiences of the masses.

The Cold War was fought in every corner of society, including in the sport and entertainment industries. Recognizing the importance of culture in the battle for hearts and minds, the United States, like the Soviet Union, attempted to win the favor of citizens in nonaligned states through the soft power of sport. Athletes became de facto ambassadors of US interests, their wins and losses serving as emblems of broader efforts to shield American culture--both at home and abroad--against communism. In Defending the American Way of Life, leading sport historians present new perspectives on high-profile issues in this era of sport history alongside research drawn from previously untapped archival sources to highlight the ways that sports influenced and were influenced by Cold War politics. Surveying the significance of sports in Cold War America through lenses of race, gender, diplomacy, cultural infiltration, anti-communist hysteria, doping, state intervention, and more, this collection illustrates how this conflict remains relevant to US sporting institutions, organizations, and ideologies today.

Delves into the long history of Asian American sporting cultures, considering how identities and communities are negotiated on sporting fields Through a close examination of Asian American sporting cultures ranging from boxing and basketball to spelling bees and wrestling, the contributors reveal the intimate connection between sport and identity formation. Sport plays a special role in the processes of citizen-making and of the policing of national and diasporic bodies. It is thus one key area in which Asian American stereotypes may be challenged, negotiated, and destroyed as athletic performances create multiple opportunities for claiming American identities. This volume incorporates work on Pacific Islander, South Asian, and Southeast Asian Americans as well as East Asian Americans, and explores how sports are gendered, including examinations of Asian American men’s attempts to claim masculinity through sporting cultures as well as the “Orientalism” evident in discussions of mixed martial arts as practiced by Asian American female fighters. This American story illuminates how marginalized communities perform their American-ness through co-ethnic and co-racial sporting spaces.

Sports in American History: From Colonization to Globalization, Third Edition With HKPropel Access, helps students grasp the compelling evolution of American sporting practices. This text examines sports history as a social and cultural phenomenon, generates a better understanding of current practices in sport, and considers future developments in American sport. This comprehensive resource explores sport through various historical periods—including premodern America, colonial times, and the modern era. Sports in American History, Third Edition, features critical new content that will provide a framework for understanding how and why sport intersects with many facets of American society: Examination of how women, racial minorities, and ethnic and religious groups have influenced U.S. sporting culture Highlights of contemporary issues affecting sport in the twenty-first century, including the Covid-19 pandemic; social justice movements; changes in name, image, and likeness policy; and sports technology Reorganized content about sporting experiences in early America that highlight the most influential moments Updated People and Places features and International Perspective sidebars that introduce key figures in sports history to provide a global understanding of sport Full-length articles from the scholarly journal Sport History Review, delivered online through HKPropel, that supplement the article excerpts and associated discussion questions found in the text Sports in American History, Third Edition, is unique in its level of detail, broad time frame, and focus on the evolving definitions of physical activity and games. Primary documents—including newspaper excerpts, illustrations, photographs, historical writings, quotations, and posters—provide firsthand accounts that will not only inform and fascinate students but also provide a well-rounded perspective on the historical development of American sport. Time lines of major milestones in sport and society provide context in each chapter, and an extensive bibliography features primary and secondary sources in American sports history. A starting point into the intriguing field of sports history, this book will help students better understand the complexities of sport in the American experience and grasp how cultural factors and historical events have shaped sport differently in the United States than in other parts of the world. Note: A code for accessing HKPropel is not included with this ebook but may be purchased separately.

This text looks at American sport from a different perspective - hegemony (a sociopolitical situation in which one way of life is dominant and is diffused throughout various social institutions and cultural practices).

One day in front of the television would convince any alien that the entirety of American culture is built around sports. Politics and business are abustle with sports metaphors and endorsements by athletes. "Home runs," "bottom of the ninth," "fourth and ten," "slam dunk," and similar phrases litter the daily vocabulary. No matter how dire the news, sports will be reported as usual. How did this single-minded fascination come to be? Mark Dyreson locates the invasion of sport at the heart of American culture at the turn of the century. It was then that social reformers and political leaders believed that sport could revitalize the "republican experiment," that a new sense of national identity could forge a new sense of community and a healthy political order as it would serve to link America's thinking classes with the experiences of the masses. Nowhere was this better exemplified than in American accounts of the Olympic Games held between 1896 and 1912. In connecting sport to American history and culture, Dyreson has stepped up to the plate and hit one out of the park. A volume in the series Sport and Society, edited by Benjamin G. Rader and Randy Roberts