New Books Network

New Books in Sports

Sports EN ↓ 501 episodes

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠ newbooksnetwork.com ⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠ https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/ ⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Sup...

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The New Books in Sports 2011 Year-End Book List 09.12.2011 2:08:43

I am a fan of the end-of-the-year, double-size issues of magazines–full of photographs, lists of the best and worst of the year, notable quotes, and vignettes about the year’s events. This week’s podcast follows in the spirit of those year-end special issues. The episode is thicker than usual, but it... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a p...

Andrei Markovits, “Gaming the World: How Sports Are Shaping Global Politics and Culture” (Princeton UP, 2010) 22.11.2011 1:08:22

“We live in the age of globalization, with the interconnection of markets, technology, and cultures making the world a smaller place.” Sure. Tell that to the guys on my local sports radio show. For them, the world is bounded by the Big Ten and the North Division of the National Football... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member!...

Ronald Reng, “A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke” (Yellow Jersey Press, 2011) 11.11.2011 1:03:02

On November 10, 2009, Robert Enke stepped in front of an express train at a crossing in the German village of Eilvese. At age 32, Robert left behind a young family: he and his wife, Teresa, had just adopted a baby girl only six months earlier. And Robert was also... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork...

David Potter, “The Victor’s Crown: A History of Ancient Sport from Homer to Byzantium” (Oxford UP, 2011) 01.11.2011 1:01:39

The Victor’s Crown brings to vivid life the signal role of sport in the classical world. Ranging over a dozen centuries–from Archaic Greece through to the late Roman and early Byzantine empires–David Potter’s lively narrative shows how sport, to the ancients, was not just a dim reflection of religion and... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming...

Jorge Iber, “Latinos in U.S. Sport: A History of Isolation, Cultural Identity, and Acceptance” (Human Kinetics, 2011) 26.10.2011 1:07:27

The 107th World Series is underway, with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers vying for the championship of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals’ star, Albert Pujols, has already entered the record books, joining Hall-of-Famers Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson as the only players ever to hit three home... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becom...

Teddy Jamieson, “Whose Side Are You On?: Sport, the Troubles, and Me” (Yellow Jersey Press, 2011) 17.10.2011 1:10:31

Here’s a sport quiz for you. Name a world-class athlete who hailed from the state of Nebraska: an Olympic champion, a hall of famer, someone who was among the very best at his or her game. (And no sneaking over to Google!) If you’re stumped, as I was, you’ll find... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork...

Jennifer Ring, “Stolen Bases: Why American Girls Don’t Play Baseball” (University of Illinois Press, 2009) 10.10.2011 1:03:43

It’s October. In the American sports calendar, that means it’s time for the baseball playoffs. My team, the Minnesota Twins, wasn’t even close this year, going from first place last year to the cellar this year. But I gained some measure of consolation last week in watching A-Rod strike out... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium mem...

Dave Zirin, “The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment that Changed the World” (Haymarket Books, 2011) 04.10.2011 1:03:43

There are beautiful sports photos, and dramatic sports photos. There are sports photos that are funny, and others that are poignant. There are photos that capture athletic brilliance, and tenacity, and passion. But there are few images from the modern history of sports that have transcended the games, photos that... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by...

Kay Schiller and Christopher Young, “The 1972 Munich Olympics and the Making of Modern Germany” (University of California Press, 2010) 26.09.2011 1:07:18

This past summer Germany hosted the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The 32 matches drew more than 800,000 fans, while the total number of foreign tourists visiting Germany increased by nine per cent over the previous summer. The German government’s commissioner for tourism proudly declared that the success of the... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by be...

Scott Brooks, “Black Men Can’t Shoot” (University of Chicago Press, 2009) 19.09.2011 1:08:02

With the NBA in the midst of a labor disagreement, players from the world’s premier basketball league are scattering in different directions to maintain their skills (and get paid). This past summer, a number of NBA players returned to their roots, so to speak, by playing in summer leagues in... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium m...

Allen Guttmann, “Sports and American Art from Benjamin West to Andy Warhol” (University of Massachusetts Press, 2011) 12.09.2011 52:30

When I was a kid, I used to pore over an illustrated history of American sports that I had received as a birthday gift. The oversized, hardcover book featured some of the iconic images of 20th-century sports: Lou Gehrig standing humbly at home plate on his day of tribute, teammates... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! http...

Andrew Morris, “Colonial Project, National Game: A History of Baseball in Taiwan” (University of California Press, 2010) 31.08.2011 59:29

My Little League baseball career spanned the late Seventies and early Eighties. During those summers, I always set aside the afternoon in August when the championship game of the Little League World Series was broadcast on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports.” There was a thrill to watching kids my own... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium...

Steve Bloomfield, “Africa United: How Football Explains Africa” (Canongate Books, 2010) 23.08.2011 52:36

A couple of days ago I had an unusual experience. I was staying in a hotel in Kampala, with a stunning view of the southern reaches of the Ugandan capital and the northern edge of Lake Victoria. It was the weekend, and in Africa that usually means football (soccer, to... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksne...

John Eric Goff, “Gold Medal Physics: The Science of Sports” (Johns Hopkins UP, 2009) 15.08.2011 1:04:12

The instructor of my freshman physics course fit the stereotype of a physics professor: unkempt white hair, black glasses case in the breast pocket of his short-sleeved shirt, thick German accent, and a tendency to mumble to himself while mulling over formula on the chalkboard. I was not his most... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premi...

Evander Lomke and Martin Rowe, “Right Off the Bat: Cricket, Baseball, Literature & Life” (Paul Dry Books, 2011) 09.08.2011 1:07:55

Last spring’s Cricket World Cup was a major global event. Estimates of the television audience for the final matches ranged from 400 million to one billion, while the website ESPNcricinfo.com had an average audience, throughout the entire 43-day tournament, of 72,000 people per minute. But for most American sports fans,... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our...

Tony Collins, “A Social History of English Rugby Union” (Routledge, 2009) 15.07.2011 1:17:03

Most modern sports have some creation myth that usually links them to an almost-sacred place of origin. Baseball has its Cooperstown. Golf its St. Andrews. Basketball its Springfield College. If you are a football fan, whether of the All Blacks or the Springboks, the Magpies or the Swans, the Longhorns... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a...

Todd Denault, “The Greatest Game: The Montreal Canadiens, the Red Army, and the Night that Saved Hockey” (McClelland & Stewart, 2010) 05.07.2011 1:15:14

When sports fans list the greatest games, they talk about close contests, outstanding performances, and dramatic finishes. Think of game six of the 1975 World Series between the Red Sox and the Reds, or Boston College’s 47-45 win over the University of Miami in 1984, capped by Doug Flutie’s miraculous... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a...

Lee Congdon, “Baseball and Memory: Winning, Losing, and Remembrance of Things Past” (St. Augustine’s Press, 2011) 05.07.2011 55:49

“Isn’t it funny?” once mused Buck O’Neil, the sage of Negro League baseball. “Everybody remembers going to their first baseball game with their father. They might not remember going to their first day of school, . . . or their first Thanksgiving dinner. But they always remember going to the... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium mem...

Don Van Natta, Jr., “Wonder Girl: The Magnificent Sporting Life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias” (Little, Brown, and Company, 2011) 23.06.2011 57:39

My older daughter is twelve years old. Like many girls her age, she has spent countless hours on the soccer field. She has played volleyball and run cross-country at her school. She was the catcher for her Little League baseball team. Now she is taking up fencing. My daughter is... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https:/...

Michael Oriard, ” Brand NFL: Making and Selling America’s Favorite Sport” (UNC Press, 2010) 15.06.2011 1:15:31

It is the summer of discontent for fans of the National Football League. What will they do if team owners and players cannot reach a labor agreement before the fall season? The satirists at The Onion have offered their speculations: fans of the Green Bay Packers will gather by the... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https...

Charles Clotfelter, “Big-Time College Sports in American Universities” (Cambridge University Press, 2011) 08.06.2011 1:11:51

Corruption in big-time college sports recently claimed another victim: Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel. Once regarded as a paragon of integrity, Tressel is now seen as one more example of a coach who recruited star players and built a successful program with the benefit of illegal gifts from boosters.... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becom...

Gavin Mortimer, “The Great Swim” (Walker Books, 2008) 31.05.2011 1:00:25

I have the habit of reacting audibly when reading good works of non-fiction. Members of my household and strangers on airplanes have been startled by my hmms and huhs of surprise, my ews and ughs of disgust, and my wows of disbelief. I put my whole vocabulary of interjections to... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https:/...

Chuck Korr, “More Than Just a Game–Soccer vs. Apartheid: The Greatest Soccer Story Ever Told” (Thomas Dunne Books, 2010) 26.05.2011 1:07:43

Chances are, if you were one of the 700 million people who watched the 2010 World Cup, you likely heard mention of the soccer games that prisoners on Robben Island played during the decades of apartheid rule. The stories of these soccer matches on the barren island, played by political... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member!...

Kurt Kemper, “College Football and American Culture in the Cold War Era” (University of Illinois Press, 2009) 20.05.2011 1:05:38

When we think of sports and the Cold War, what typically comes to mind are steroid-fueled East German swimmers, or the Soviets’ controversial basketball win at the Munich games, or Mike Eruzione’s game-winning goal in 1980 (or Paul Henderson’s goal in 1972, if you’re so inclined). What we don’t think... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a p...

Erik Jensen, “Body by Weimar: Athletes, Gender, and German Modernity” (Oxford UP, 2010) 01.04.2011 1:03:13

Here’s a simple–or should we say simplistic?–line of political reasoning: communities are made of people; people can either be sick or healthy; communities, therefore, are sick or healthy depending on the sickness or health of their people. This logic is powerful. It explains success: “We lost the war because we,... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by...