New Books in Sports

Stephanie Convery, "After the Count: The Death of Davey Browne" (Penguin Australia, 2020)

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Stephanie Convery, inequality editor at Guardian Australia, and author of After the Count: The Death of Davey Browne (Penguin...

J. Daniel, "Suds Series: Baseball, Beer Wars, and the Summer of '82" (U Missouri Press, 2023)

26 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, J. Daniel takes readers back more than forty years, telling a story that is part baseball history, part urban history, and part U.S. ...

Jeffrey Scholes, "Christianity, Race, and Sport" (Routledge, 2021)

14 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This book provides a rigorously researched introduction to the relationship between Christianity, race, and sport in the United States. Christianity,...

Shay Rabineau, "Walking the Land: A History of Israeli Hiking Trails" (Indiana UP, 2023)

12 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Israel has one of the most extensive and highly developed hiking trail systems of any country in the world. Millions of hikers use the trails every ye...

Corry Cropper and Seth Whidden, "Velocipedomania: A Cultural History of the Velocipede in France" (Bucknell UP, 2022)

21 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Corry Cropper, a Professor of French at Brigham Young University, and one of two authors, alongside Seth Whidden, of Velociped...

Nick Baumgardner and Mark Snyder, "Mountaintop: The Inside Story of Michigan's 1997 National Title Climb" (Printopya, 2023)

06 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When the 1997 college football season began, the once-mighty Michigan Wolverines were dismissed nationally as a relic of a bygone era. Michigan had po...

James N. Druckman and Elizabeth A. Sharrow, "Equality Unfulfilled: How Title IX's Policy Design Undermines Change to College Sports" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The year 1972 is often hailed as an inflection point in the evolution of women's rights. Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972,...

Steven P. Gietschier, "Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years" (U Nebraska Press, 2023)

23 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years (University of Nebraska Press, 2023) explores the history of organized baseball during the middle of the twe...

Lincoln A. Mitchell, "The One Hundred Most Important Players in Baseball History" (Artemesia Publishing, 2023)

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Baseball lore and history is filled with many valuable players, and not all of them are the Hall of Famers you know. In The One Hundred Most Importan...

Karen Eva Carr, "Shifting Currents: A World History of Swimming" (Reaktion Books, 2022)

17 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Dr. Karen Carr, Associate Professor Emerita in the Department of History at Portland State University and the author of Shifti...

A Better Way to Buy Books

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Bookshop.org is an online book retailer that donates more than 80% of its profits to independent bookstores. Launched in 2020, Bookshop.org has alre...

Erik Sherman, "Daybreak at Chavez Ravine: Fernandomania and the Remaking of the Los Angeles Dodgers" (U Nebraska Press, 2023)

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Fernando Valenzuela was only twenty years old when Tom Lasorda chose him as the Dodgers' opening-day starting pitcher in 1981. Born in the remote Mexi...

Mike Pesca, "Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History" (Twelve, 2018)

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

No announcer ever proclaimed: "Up Rises Frazier!" "Havlicek commits the foul, trying to steal the ball!" or "The Giants Lose the Pennant, The Giants L...

Earl Cureton and Jake Uitti, "Earl the Twirl: My Life in Basketball" (McFarland, 2023)

16 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Earl Careton about his new book (co-authored with Jake Uitti), Earl the Twirl: My Life in Basketball (McFarland, 2023) Earl "The ...

Matthew Bentley and John D. Bloom, "The Imperial Gridiron: Manhood, Civilization, and Football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)

30 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Imperial Gridiron: Manhood, Civilization, and Football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (University of Nebraska Press, 2022) examines th...

Katherine C. Mooney, "Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey" (Yale UP, 2023)

02 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Isaac Murphy, born enslaved in 1861, still reigns as one of the greatest jockeys in American history. Black jockeys like Murphy were at the top of the...

Surf Craft: Design and the Culture of Board Riding

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Surfboards were once made of wood and shaped by hand, objects of both cultural and recreational significance. Today most surfboards are mass-produced ...

Zhouxiang Lu, "A History of Competitive Gaming" (Routledge, 2022)

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Competitive gaming, or esports - referring to competitive tournaments of video games among both casual gamers and professional players - began in the ...

Lee Lowenfish, "Baseball's Endangered Species: Inside the Craft of Scouting by Those Who Lived It" (U Nebraska Press, 2023)

11 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Scouting has been called pro baseball’s personalized way of renewing itself from year to year and a pathway to the game’s past. It takes a very sp...

Michael T. Friedman, "Mallparks: Baseball Stadiums and the Culture of Consumption" (Cornell UP, 2023)

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Mallparks: Baseball Stadiums and the Culture of Consumption (Cornell UP, 2023), Michael T. Friedman observes that as cathedrals represented power...

How are Sports Teams Using Data Science?

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, the journal’s Features Editor Liberty Vittert and Editor in Chief Xiao-Li Meng dig into the data behind sports with two experts: B...

Carlo Parisi, "Dagger Fencing: The Italian School" (Fallen Rook, 2016)

20 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today, fighting with dagger versus dagger, or with knife versus knife, is not a common scenario that people might expect to face. However, it was more...

The Business of College Sports: The Impact of NIL on NCAA Athletes

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2021, the NCAA began allowing student-athletes to receive compensation. NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) rule changes give student-athletes the righ...

Journalistic Collaboration (JP)

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Steve Fainaru and his brother Mark Fainaru-Wada wrote a bestselling and award-winning book (and accompanying PBS documentary series) about the NFL ...

James Hibbard, "The Art of Cycling: Philosophy, Meaning, and a Life on Two Wheels" (Pegasus Books, 2023)

29 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Interweaving a deeply personal narrative of elite-level cycling and mental health struggles with an evocative history of Western philosophy from Plato...

Paul R. Semendinger, "Roy White: From Compton to the Bronx" (Artemesia, 2023)

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Roy White played on the New York Yankees from 1965 through the 1979 season. Roy grew up on the tough streets of Compton and created a successful all-s...

Keith Brian Wood, "Memphis Hoops: Race and Basketball in the Bluff City,1968-1997" (U Tennessee Press, 2021)

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Memphis Hoops: Race and Basketball in the Bluff City, 1968-1997 (U Tennessee Press, 2021) tells the story of basketball in Tennessee’s southwester...

Gregory J. Kaliss, "Beyond the Black Power Salute: Athlete Activism in an Era of Change" (U Illinois Press, 2023)

14 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Unequal opportunity sparked Jim Brown's endeavors to encourage Black development while Billie Jean King fought so that women tennis players could earn...

Alexis James, "Unsung: Not All Heroes Wear Kits" (Pitch Publishing, 2023)

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Unsung: Not all Heroes Wear Kits (Pitch Publishing, 2022) by Alexis James introduces the sports stars you don't know, telling the stories you can't m...

Kate Sylvester, "Women and Martial Art in Japan" (Routledge, 2022)

18 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kate Sylvester’s Women and Martial Art in Japan (Routledge 2023) examines sport, gender, and society in Japan through the author’s extensive exp...

Theresa Runstedtler, "Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation That Saved the Soul of the NBA" (Bold Type Books, 2023)

11 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Against a backdrop of ongoing resistance to racial desegregation and strident calls for Black Power, the NBA in the 1970s embodied the nation’s imag...

Thomas Aiello, "Dixieball: Race and Professional Basketball in the Deep South, 1947-1979" (U Tennessee Press, 2019)

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Dixieball: Race and Professional Basketball in the Deep South, 1947-1979 (U Tennessee Press, 2019), Thomas Aiello considers the cultural functio...

Britni de la Cretaz and Lyndsey D'Arcangelo, "Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League" (Bold Type Books, 2021)

25 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Frankie de la Cretaz, a sports journalist whose work focuses on the intersection of sport and gender, and one of the authors al...

Nicolai Jørgensgaard Graakjær, "The Sounds of Spectators at Football" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

25 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The sounds of spectators at football (soccer) are often highlighted – by spectators, tourists, commentators, journalists, scholars, media producers,...

Ashley Brown, "Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson" (Oxford UP, 2023)

24 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From her start playing paddle tennis on the streets of Harlem as a young teenager to her eleven Grand Slam tennis wins to her professional golf career...

Kevin Bryant, "Spies on the Sidelines: The High-Stakes World of NFL Espionage" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022)

22 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kevin Bryant's Spies on the Sidelines: The High-Stakes World of NFL Espionage (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022) is first book to fully explore the extra...

The Business of the Early NHL

22 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Greg Marchildon interviews J. Andrew Ross about his book Joining the Clubs: The Business of the National Hockey League, 1917-1945 (University of Syrac...

Pete Millwood, "Improbable Diplomats: How Ping-Pong Players, Musicians, and Scientists Remade US-China Relations" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1971, Americans made two historic visits to China that would transform relations between the two countries. One was by US official Henry Kissinger;...

Sara Petrosillo, "Hawking Women: Falconry, Gender, and Control in Medieval Literary Culture" (Ohio State UP, 2023)

12 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Fantastic and informative talk with Sara Petrosillo of the University of Evansville about her new book, Hawking Women: Falconry, Gender, and Control ...

Mike Westhoff, "Figure It Out: My Thirty-Two-Year Journey While Revolutionizing Pro Football's Special Teams" (Mascot Books, 2022)

11 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Simply put, Mike Westhoff is the greatest special teams coach in National Football League history. Sharp-witted, creative, and intensely focused, West...

Tim Harte, "Faster, Higher, Stronger, Comrades!: Sports, Art, and Ideology in Late Russian and Early Soviet Culture" (U Wisconsin Press, 2020)

05 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Tim Harte's Faster, Higher, Stronger, Comrades!: Sports, Art, and Ideology in Late Russian and Early Soviet Culture (U Wisconsin Press, 2020) lo...

Adam Elder, "New Kids in the World Cup: The Totally Late '80s and Early '90s Tale of the Team That Changed American Soccer Forever" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)

05 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1990, though no one knew it then, a fearless group of players changed the sport of soccer in the United States forever. Young, bronzed, and mullete...

Matthew Taylor, "Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Play, 1939-45" (Routledge, 2020)

04 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Matthew Taylor, Professor of History at De Montfort University, and author of Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Pla...

Shaun M. Anderson, "The Black Athlete Revolt: The Sport Justice Movement in the Age Of #BlackLivesMatter" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)

27 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the age of social media, athletes have a powerful influence like never before. Many Black athletes have used that power in positive ways, galvanizi...

Sheri Brenden, "Break Point: Two Minnesota Athletes and the Road to Title IX" (U Minnesota Press, 2022)

25 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Break Point: Two Minnesota Athletes and the Road to Title IX (University of Minnesota Press, 2022), Sheri Brenden examines how two teenage girls...

Harald Koberg, "Free Play: Digital Gaming and the Longing for Effectiveness" (Büchner-Verlag, 2021)

13 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What needs are satisfied in digital gaming? And what does the shift of these need satisfactions into the digital space say about the social realities ...

Thomas Beller, "Lost in the Game: A Book about Basketball" (Duke UP, 2022)

11 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For players, coaches, writers, and fans, basketball is a science and an art, a religious sacrament, a source of entertainment, and a way of interactin...

Ray Scott, "The NBA in Black and White: The Memoir of a Trailblazing NBA Player and Coach" (Seven Stories Press, 2022)

24 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“There’s a basic insecurity with Black guys my size,” Scott writes. “We can’t hide and everybody turns to stare when we walk down the street...

Alan Shuback, "Hollywood at the Races: Film's Love Affair with the Turf" (UP of Kentucky, 2019)

15 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Alan Shuback about his book Hollywood at the Races: Film's Love Affair with the Turf (UP of Kentucky, 2019) A love of the slapsti...

Muggsy Bogues and Jake Uitti, "Muggsy: My Life from a Kid in the Projects to the Godfather of Small Ball" (Triumph, 2022)

10 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Growing up, Muggsy Bogues was always told he should do something else, anything besides basketball. He never acknowledged his many doubters except to ...

Andrew McIlwaine Bell, "The Origins of Southern College Football: How an Ivy League Game Became a Dixie Tradition" (LSU Press, 2020)

02 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

College football is a massive enterprise in the United States, and southern teams dominate poll rankings and sports headlines while generating billion...

Randall Balmer, "Passion Plays: How Religion Shaped Sports in North America" (UNC Press, 2022)

20 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Randall Balmer was a late convert to sports talk radio, but he quickly became addicted, just like millions of other devoted American sports fans. As a...

Ben Chappell, "Mexican American Fastpitch: Vernacular Sport and Cultural Citizenship in Mid-America" (Stanford UP, 2021)

19 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Ben Chappell, Professor of American Studies at the University of Kansas, and author of Mexican American Fastpitch: Identity at...

Sherry Boschert, "37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination" (New Press, 2022)

14 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A sweeping history of the federal legislation that prohibits sex discrimination in education, published on the fiftieth anniversary of Title IX. “No...

How to Play Poker Like the Pros: A Conversation with Jonathan Little

10 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At the age of 18, Jonathan Little opened an online poker account with a $50 deposit. By age 21, he had about $350,000 in his account. In this episode ...

Adam Adatto Sandel, "Happiness in Action: A Philosopher's Guide to the Good Life" (Harvard UP, 2022)

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A young philosopher and Guinness World Record holder in pull-ups argues that the key to happiness is not goal-driven striving but forging a life that ...

John Saeki, "The Last Tigers of Hong Kong: True Stories of Big Cats That Stalked the Hills Beyond the City" (Blacksmith Books, 2021)

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Most Hong Kong residents nowadays only have to worry about a wandering boar or an aggressive monkey in their day-to-day lives. But for much of its...

Judy Tzu-Chun Wu and Gwendolyn Mink, "Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink, First Woman of Color in Congress" (NYU Press, 2022)

05 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The first biography of trailblazing legislator Patsy Takemoto Mink, best known as the legislative champion of Title IX. "Every girl in Little League, ...

C. Thi Nguyen, "Games: Agency as Art" (Oxford UP, 2020)

04 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Games are a unique art form. Games work in the medium of agency. Game designers tell us who to be and what to care about during the game. Game designe...

Nancy Lough and Andrea N. Geurin, "Routledge Handbook of the Business of Women's Sport" (Routledge, 2019)

29 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Shortly after the conclusion of the Women's World Cup earlier this summer, a friend suggested to me that it signaled the long-awaited arrival of socce...

Jamie Fahey, "Futsal: The Indoor Game That Is Revolutionizing World Soccer" (Melville House, 2021)

22 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Jamie Fahey about his book Futsal: The Indoor Game That Is Revolutionizing World Soccer (Melville House, 2021). Some 60 million p...

College Baseball in the Offseason: Meet the Savannah Bananas

22 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: The hard work of balancing academics and sports when you attend college on an athl...

Fiona Crawford and Lee McGowan, "Never Say Die: The Hundred-Year Overnight Success of Australian Women's Football" (NewSouth Books, 2019)

21 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by two guests: Dr. Fiona Crawford, a writer, editor, and researcher whose work engages with social, environmental, and sports. Dr....

Randall Balmer, "Passion Plays: How Religion Shaped Sports in North America" (UNC Press, 2022)

20 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Randall Balmer was a late convert to sports talk radio, but he quickly became addicted, just like millions of other devoted American sports fans. As a...

Brian D. Bunk, "From Football to Soccer: The Early History of the Beautiful Game in the United States" (U Illinois Press, 2021)

19 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Across North America, native peoples and colonists alike played a variety of kicking games long before soccer's emergence in the late 1800s. Brian D....

Paul Russell Semendinger, "The Least Among Them: 29 Players, Their Brief Moments in the Big Leagues, and a Unique History of the New York Yankees" (Artemesia, 2021)

16 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Least Among Them: 29 Players, Their Brief Moments in the Big Leagues, and a Unique History of the New York Yankees (Artemesia, 2021) is a most sp...

Michael O. Johnston, "Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest" (Lexington Books, 2022)

16 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest (Lexington Books, 2022) explores an annual interstate tug-of-war between two small...

Ugo Corte, "Dangerous Fun: The Social Lives of Big Wave Surfers" (U Chicago Press, 2022)

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Straight from the beaches of Hawaii comes an exciting new ethnography of a community of big-wave surfers. Oahu’s Waimea Bay attracts the world’s b...

Paul Oyer, "An Economist Goes to the Game: How to Throw Away $580 Million and Other Surprising Insights from the Economics of Sports" (Yale UP, 2022)

29 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Should you train your kid to become a pro athlete? Why do Koreans dominate women’s golf? Why should ticket scalpers get more respect? Why are pro sp...

Shaul Adar, "On the Border: The Rise and Decline of the Most Political Club in the World" (Pitch Publishing, 2022)

29 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In December 2020, an Israeli football club made worldwide headlines. The news that a UAE royal had bought 50 per cent of Beitar's shares shook Israel ...

Don’t Hate the Player: The World of E-Sports

26 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode of Darts and Letters, we took a personal journey into virtual sport. Listen in as guest host (and regular lead producer) Jay Cockburn ...

Jamie Fahey, "Futsal: The Indoor Game That Is Revolutionizing World Soccer" (Melville House, 2022)

24 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Jamie Fahey, a Guardian journalist and production editor with more than twenty years’ experience on several national newspa...

Andrew M. Guest, "Soccer in Mind: A Thinking Fan's Guide to the Global Game" (Rutgers UP, 2021)

18 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Andrew Guest, Professor of Psychology and Sociology at the University of Portland, where he also serves as Director of the Core...

Lisa Uperesa, "Gridiron Capital: How American Football Became a Samoan Game" (Duke UP, 2022)

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since the 1970s, a “Polynesian Pipeline” has brought football players from American Sāmoa to Hawaii and the mainland United States to play at the...

John Morton, "Celebrate Winter: An Olympian's Stories of a Life in Nordic Skiing" (Morton Trails, 2020)

15 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Celebrate Winter: An Olympian's Stories of a Life in Nordic Skiing (Morton Trails, 2020) by John Morton is a wonderful look back at experiences and l...

Grant Wiedenfeld, "Hollywood Sports Movies and the American Dream" (Oxford UP, 2022)

08 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Through the heart of Hollywood cinema runs a surprising current of progressive politics. Sports movies, a genre that has flourished since the mid-seve...

Donald Trump Loves Wrestlemania

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Darts and Letters is a show about the politics of ideas, and this week we’re searching for progressive politics in strange places… such as pro-wre...

Jody Rosen, "Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle" (Crown, 2022)

08 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The bicycle is a vestige of the Victorian era, seemingly at odds with our age of smartphones and ride-sharing apps and driverless cars. Yet we live on...

Shaul Adar, "On the Border: The Rise and Decline of the Most Political Club in the World" (Pitch Publishing, 2022)

05 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On the Border: The Rise and Decline of the Most Political Club in the World (Pitch Publishing, 2022) by Shaul Adar is the compelling tale of a footba...

Daniel Silva, "Embodying Modernity: Global Fitness Culture and Building the Brazilian Body" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2022)

01 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Daniel Silva’s Embodying Modernity: Global Fitness Culture and Building the Brazilian Body (U Pittsburgh Press, 2022) examines the current boom o...

Greg Hoffman, "Emotion By Design: Creative Leadership Lessons from a Life at Nike" (Twelve, 2022)

30 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Greg Hoffman about his new book Emotion By Design: Creative Leadership Lessons from a Life at Nike (Twelve, 2022). For this week’...

On Taoism, Martial Arts, and Mad Monk Manifesto

24 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Monk Yun Rou was ordained in China as a Taoist monk in 2012. His writings and teachings propagate Taoist ideas and focus on environmental conservation...

Mick Conefrey, "Everest 1922: The Epic Story of the First Attempt on the World's Highest Mountain" (Pegasus Books, 2022)

23 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It can be hard to think of Everest as unknown anymore. While it’s certainly a challenge to climb the world’s tallest mountain, someone–with enou...

Douglas Booth, "Bondi Beach: Representations of an Iconic Australian" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Douglas Booth, Dean of Adventure, Culinary Arts and Tourism at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, Canada and Profe...

Carlos Acevedo, "The Duke: The Life and Lies of Tommy Morrison" (Hamilcar, 2022)

30 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1990s, Tommy Morrison, a young roughneck from Jay, Oklahoma, burst onto the boxing scene to become one of the most controversial fighters...

David Lunt, "The Crown Games of Ancient Greece: Archaeology, Athletes, and Heroes" (U Arkansas Press, 2022)

19 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Crown Games were the apex of competition in ancient Greece. Along with prestigious athletic contests in honor of Zeus at Olympia, they comprised t...

Shannon L. Walsh, "Eugenics and Physical Culture Performance in the Progressive Era: Watch Whiteness Workout" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020)

19 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Dr. Shannon Walsh, Associate Professor of Theatre History, and author of Eugenics and Physical Culture Performance in the Prog...

On Hiking as Pilgrimage

18 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Christopher Ives teaches in the area of Asian Religions at Stonehill College in Massachusetts. In his scholarship, he focuses on modern Zen ethics...

Gary B. Fogel, "Sky Rider: Park Van Tassel and the Rise of Ballooning in the West" (U New Mexico Press, 2021)

06 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With a reputation as the hot-air balloon capital of the world and the home of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, the southwestern desert ci...

Craig Calcaterra, "Rethinking Fandom: How to Beat the Sports-Industrial Complex at Its Own Game" (Belt Publishing, 2022)

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sports fandom isn't what it used to be. Owners and executives increasingly count on the blind loyalty of their fans and too often act against the team...

Paul Darby et al., "African Football Migration: Aspirations, Experiences and Trajectories" (Manchester UP, 2022)

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The global success of football icons like Samuel Eto'o, Didier Drogba and Mohamed Salah has fuelled the migratory projects of countless young men acro...

Thomas Aiello, "Hoops: A Cultural History of Basketball in America" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2021)

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From its early days as a sport to build “muscular Christianity” among young men flooding nineteenth-century cities to its position today as a glob...

Susan Nance, "Rodeo: An Animal History" (U Oklahoma Press, 2020)

22 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Animals are both the focus of rodeo and its most invisible participants, argues University of Guelph history professor Susan Nance in Rodeo: An Anim...

Why Is Eileen Gu the New Poster Child in China?

08 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What is “binary nationalism” and what has it got to do with free-style skiing? The explosive popularity of Eileen Gu’s is an excellent case for ...

Hugo Ceron-Anaya, "Privilege at Play: Class, Race, Gender, and Golf in Mexico" (Oxford UP, 2019)

06 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Privilege at Play: Class, Race, Gender, and Golf in Mexico (Oxford University Press, 2019) is a book about inequalities, social hierarchies, and priv...

Rickson Gracie and Peter Maguire, "Breathe: A Life in Flow" (Dey Street, 2021)

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Rickson Gracie is one of the most fascinating professional athletes in the world. It is not hyperbole to call him a "living legend". A scion of a fam...

Dan Grunfeld, "By the Grace of the Game: The Holocaust, a Basketball Legacy, and an Unprecedented American Dream" (Triumph Books, 2022)

21 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Lily and Alex entered a packed gymnasium in Queens, New York in 1972, they barely recognized their son. The boy who escaped to America with them...

Samir Chopra, "The Evolution of a Cricket Fan: My Shapeshifting Journey" (Temple UP, 2021)

09 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Dr. Samir Chopra, Professor of Philosophy at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and au...

Carly D. McKay, "The Mental Impact of Sports Injury" (Routledge, 2021)

07 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Much is known about the physical strain that athletes’ bodies are subjected to, but until recently, the role of psychological factors in risk and re...

Christopher Clarey, "The Master: The Brilliant Career of Roger Federer" (Twelve, 2021)

18 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There have been other biographies of Roger Federer, but never one with this kind of access to the man himself, his support team, and the most prominen...