In The Meaning of Sports, Michael Mandelbaum, a sports fan who is also one of the nation's preeminent foreign policy thinkers, examines America's century-long love affair with team sports. In keeping with his reputation for writing about big ideas in an illuminating and graceful way, he shows how sports respond to deep human needs; describes the ways in which baseball, football and basketball became national institutions and how they reached their present forms; and covers the evolution of rules, the rise and fall of the most successful teams, and the historical significance of the most famous and influential figures such as Babe Ruth, Vince Lombardi, and Michael Jordan. Whether he is writing about baseball as the agrarian game, football as similar to warfare, basketball as the embodiment of post-industrial society, or the moral havoc created by baseball's designated hitter rule, Mandelbaum applies the full force of his learning and wit to subjects about which so many Americans care passionately: the games they played in their youth and continue to follow as adults. By offering a fresh and unconventional perspective on these games, The Meaning of Sports makes for fascinating and rewarding reading both for fans and newcomers.

Takes you on a journey from the Olympic Games in Athens to the World Cup in Germany - via the Ashes series, the Ryder Cup, Wimbledon, and more. This book examines why sport holds us all in such thrall, how it uplifts and crushes us - and can seem to matter more than life itself.

The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science and Medicine provides comprehensive and authoritative definitions of nearly 8000 sports science and sports medicine terms. All major areas are covered, including exercise psychology, sports nutrition, biomechanics, anatomy, sports sociology, training principles and techniques and sports injury and rehabilitation The dictionary will be an invaluable aid to students, coaches, athletes and anyone wanting instant access to the scientific principles, anatomical structures, and physiological, sociological and psychological processes that affect sporting performance. It will also be of interest to the general reader interested in sports science and medicine terminology.

This comprehensive text focuses mostly on athletics in classical Greece and Rome, emphasizing the relationship between athletics and religion, art, and education. Also discussed are such events as throwing the discus and javelin, the pentathlon, the stadium and the foot-race, jumping, wrestling, boxing, ball play, and a Greek athletic festival. According to the Times (London) Literary Supplement, the book "should command the attention not only of classical scholars but of all who are interested in athletics for their own sake; and for such readers, [the author] has spared no pains to make his work intelligible." Unabridged republication of Athletics of the Ancient World, originally published by the Oxford University Press, London, 1930. 137 black-and-white illustrations. Bibliography. Index and Glossary.

In The Meaning of Sports, Michael Mandelbaum, a sports fan who is also one of the nation's preeminent foreign policy thinkers, examines America's century-long love affair with team sports. In keeping with his reputation for writing about big ideas in an illuminating and graceful way, he shows how sports respond to deep human needs; describes the ways in which baseball, football and basketball became national institutions and how they reached their present forms; and covers the evolution of rules, the rise and fall of the most successful teams, and the historical significance of the most famous and influential figures such as Babe Ruth, Vince Lombardi, and Michael Jordan. Whether he is writing about baseball as the agrarian game, football as similar to warfare, basketball as the embodiment of post-industrial society, or the moral havoc created by baseball's designated hitter rule, Mandelbaum applies the full force of his learning and wit to subjects about which so many Americans care passionately: the games they played in their youth and continue to follow as adults. By offering a fresh and unconventional perspective on these games, The Meaning of Sports makes for fascinating and rewarding reading both for fans and newcomers.

This classic anthology analyzes the sociological implications of sports in modern society through a series of interesting and informative essays. Sport in Contemporary Society can be used in a variety of ways, as a primary text for courses in the sociology of sport, as a supplementary text for a sociology course, or even for general readers who wish to deepen their understanding and appreciation of sport. 35 articles, 21 new to this edition, are included.