Historicizing The Pan American Games

The Pan-American Games, begun officially in 1951 in Buenos Aires and held in every region of the western hemisphere, have become one of the largest multi-sport games in the world. 6,132 athletes from 41 countries competed in 48 sports in the 2015 Games in Toronto, Canada. The Games are simultaneously an avenue for the spread of the Olympic Movement across the Americas, a stage for competing ideologies of Pan-American unity, and an occasion for host city infrastructural stimulus and economic development. And yet until this volume, the Games have never been studied as a single entity from a scholarly viewpoint. Historicizing the Pan-American Games presents 12 original articles on the Games. Topics range from the origins of the Games in the period between the world wars, to their urban, hemispheric and cultural legacies, to the policy implications of specific Games for international sport. The entire collection is set against the shifting economic, social, political, cultural, sporting and artistic contexts of the turbulent western hemisphere. Historicizing the Pan-American Games makes a significant contribution to the literature on major games, Olympic sport and sport in the western hemisphere. This book was previously published as a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.

This is a fundamental text for the study of sport history. It answers the ‘why,’ ‘how,’ and ‘what’ questions, introducing the key principles and practices of sport history and walking the reader through the fascinating stories, debates, issues, and national and international narratives that constitute the history of sport. The book provides an overview of the field and the various professional roles assumed by practitioners, such as researchers, academics, and public historians. It is brief, crisp, and to the point. The main general topics of interest within the field – gender, race, nationalism, religion, sport and leisure, and megaevents – are covered with introductory vignettes, stories of interest, a wide variety of theoretical frameworks, and relevant historiography in the most current and timely text of its kind. Each chapter provides a list of further readings for more in-depth study. Students are taught how to conduct research and present their findings in a variety of mediums, and teaching and publication tips are offered for educators. Sport History: The Basics is essential reading for any student on a sport-related degree course or with an interest in social and cultural history. It is also fascinating reading for anybody with a general interest in sport.

The Olympic Games are a phenomenon of unparalleled global proportions. This book examines the rich and complex involvement of Latin America and the Caribbean peoples with the Olympic Movement, serving as an effective medium to explore the making of this region. The nine essays here investigate the influence, struggles, and contributions of Latin American and Caribbean societies to the Olympic Movement. By delving into nationalist political movements, post-revolutionary diplomacy, decolonization struggles, gender and disability discourses, and more, they define how the nations of this region have shaped and been shaped by the Olympic Movement.

Statues of fans as nostalgic monuments to the North American devotion to baseball, Canadian lacrosse and ethnic ideologies, the rise of modern sports and class sensibilities in São Paulo, the inaugural world championship for women’s hockey, and national memories of Olympic Games hosted on US soil. What do these seemingly disparate themes have in common? They each comprise a facet of sporting experiences in the western hemisphere that took place between the 1890s and the 1990s. This collection offers new insights on the role of sport in defining local, regional, national, and international cultures in the western hemisphere. The essays offer historical perspectives on the power of sport to create common ground in modern societies while simultaneously exploring how it serves to mark cultural boundaries and reinforce cultural identities. From national pastimes to ethnic traditions, from class sensibilities to racial ideologies, Sport in the Americas presents novel contributions that examine both the singular and manifold patterns of culture that sport animates. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue in The International Journal of the History of Sport.

This volume examines the cultural meanings of high-level amateur and professional hockey in Canada during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In particular, the author analyzes English Canadian media narratives of Stanley Cup "challenge" games and championship series between 1896 and 1907. Newspaper coverage and telegraph reconstructions of Stanley Cup challenges contributed significantly to the growth of a mediated Canadian "hockey world" – and a broader "world of sport" – during this time period. By 1903, Stanley Cup hockey games had become national Canadian events, followed by audiences across the country. Hockey also played an important role in the construction of gender and class identities, and in debates about amateurism, professionalism, and community representation in sport. The author also explores the connections between violence and masculinity in Canadian hockey by examining media descriptions of "brutal" and "strenuous" play. He analyzes how notions of civic identity changed as hockey clubs evolved from amateur teams represented by players who were members of their home community to professional aggregations that included paid imports from outside the town. As a result, this volume addresses important gaps in the study of sport history and the analysis of sport and popular culture. This book was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.

Ceded to the United States under the terms of the Treaty of Paris after the Spanish-American War of 1898, Puerto Rico has since remained a colonial territory. Despite this subordinated colonial experience, however, Puerto Ricans managed to secure national Olympic representation in the 1930s and in so doing nurtured powerful ideas of nationalism. By examining how the Olympic movement developed in Puerto Rico, Antonio Sotomayor illuminates the profound role sports play in the political and cultural processes of an identity that evolved within a political tradition of autonomy rather than traditional political independence. Significantly, it was precisely in the Olympic arena that Puerto Ricans found ways to participate and show their national pride, often by using familiar colonial strictures—and the United States’ claim to democratic values—to their advantage. Drawing on extensive archival research, both on the island and in the United States, Sotomayor uncovers a story of a people struggling to escape the colonial periphery through sport and nationhood yet balancing the benefits and restraints of that same colonial status. The Sovereign Colony describes the surprising negotiations that gave rise to Olympic sovereignty in a colonial nation, a unique case in Latin America, and uses Olympic sports as a window to view the broader issues of nation building and identity, hegemony, postcolonialism, international diplomacy, and Latin American–U.S. relations.

China’s sports history and its contemporary role in the global sporting community have become well-known, but the sporting history and development of China’s two Special Administrative Regions – Hong Kong and Macau – have not received the coverage they deserve either in their historical contexts or since the handovers of control to the People's Republic. By drawing on a multi-national group of scholars and practitioners, this volume makes a unique contribution to the understanding of sports development in greater China. The essays in this anthology examine the evolution of key sports, the hosting of sporting mega-events, the nexus of sports and politics, identity issues, and the role of sporting diplomacy. The chapters provide not only an analysis of colonial legacies but also in-depth accounts of the challenges to and outcomes of sports development in Hong Kong after 1997 and Macau after 1999. The chapters in this book were originally published in various special issues of The International Journal of the History of Sport.

Interpreting Sports at Museums and Historic Sites provides a step-by-step guide for museums and historic sites developing an interpretive plan inclusive of sports.