Showing titles in Sociology of Sports

Here Edgeofsports.com sportswriter Dave Zirin shows how sports express the worst, as well as the most creative and exciting, features of American society. Zirin explores how Janet Jackson's Super Bowl flash-time show exposed more than a breast, why the labor movement has everything to learn from sports unions, and why a new generation of athletes is no longer content to "play one game at a time" and is starting to get political.

From Jackie Robinson to Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, African American athletes have been at the center of modern culture, their on-the-field heroics admired and stratospheric earnings envied. But for all their money, fame, and achievement, says former New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden, Black athletes still find themselves on the periphery of true power in the multibillion-dollar industry their talent built. Provocative and controversial, Rhoden's Forty Million Dollar Slaves weaves a compelling narrative of Black athletes in the United States.

In Against Football Steve Almond details why, after 40 years as a fan, he can no longer watch the game he still loves. Using a synthesis of memoir, reportage, and cultural critique, Almond asks a series of provocative questions: Does our addiction to football foster a tolerance for violence, greed, racism, and homophobia? What does it mean that our society has transmuted the intuitive physical joys of childhood--run, leap, throw, tackle--into a billion-dollar industry?

The NBA has returned to prominence on the backs of phenoms like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett. The media promotes them, the shoe companies pay them, and America applauds. But how exactly do such players reach the pros? What do they give up to get there? And what happens to those who fall short?

A history of the activism and achievement of African American athletes from Jesse Owens to Serena Williams to Colin Kaepernick, who advanced the cause of social justice through their outspokenness, commitment, and integrity. Muhammad Ali refused to fight in a war he believed was immoral. Wilma Rudolph retired from track and field to campaign for civil rights. Taking a Knee, Taking a Stand tells their stories and the stories of other prominent African American male and female athletes who often risked their careers to fight racial discrimination and promote social justice.

The Competitive Buddha is about mastery, leadership, and spirituality. Learn what you need to keep, what you need to discard, and what you need to add to your mental, emotional, and spiritual skill set as an athlete, coach, leader, parent, CEO, or any other performer in life. Understand how Buddhism can help you to be better prepared for sports and life, and how sports and life can teach you about Buddhism. Lynch sheds light on the positive aspects of competition, adding Eastern thought and spirituality to sport, while elevating competitors and the game.

Only available in audio! Listen to never-before-told, behind-the-scenes anecdotes as recounted by sports journalism legend John Feinstein. Hear John's once-in-lifetime personal interactions with some of the most monumental figures and moments in sports history: from Bob Knight and “the night...

In an increasingly secular, fragmented, and distracted culture, nothing brings Americans together quite like sports. On Sundays in September, more families worship at the altar of the NFL than at any church. This appeal, which cuts across all demographic and ideological lines, makes sports perhaps the last unifying mass ritual of our era, with huge numbers of people all focused on the same thing at the same moment. That timeless, live quality makes sports very powerful, and very lucrative. And the media spectacle around them is only getting bigger, brighter, and noisier.

Football teams create playbooks, in which they draw up the plays they will use on the field. Playbooks are how teams work and why they win. This book is about a different kind of playbook: The one coaches, teams, universities, police, communities, the media, and fans seem to follow whenever a college football player is accused of sexual assault. It’s a deep dive into how different institutions - the NCAA, athletic departments, universities, the media - run the same plays over and over again when these stories break.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Rap Year Book and Basketball (and Other Things), a clever and inventive examination of some of basketball's most iconic players, moments, games, and more. Everything in basketball is measured. Everything in basketball is counted, and...

In the four biggest American sports leagues, 124 franchises vie for the crown of greatest of all. Only one can sit atop the throne. Now for the first time ever, Got Your Legends ranks all of the franchises and explains which teams are legendary, or unique, or exciting, or tragic . . . or laughable.

Brought to you by Penguin. Hurling is Ireland’s national game – a source of fascination and pride, even to people who have never played it. Ciarán Murphy, a lifelong club footballer, used to be one of those people. Then he spent a summer trying to play hurling with a tiny club in the West...

Pull back the curtain on the most powerful position in all of sports: the Quarterback, the American equivalent of royalty, long glamorized, mythologized and worshiped.

A deep dive into the institutional racism and prejudice in the sport of hockey that persists across all levels - and how it will impact the future of the sport While professional sports leagues claim to promote diversity and inclusivity, institutional racism remains apparent in all sports, but...

Fixed breaks new ground as Moses Swaibu becomes the first player ever to write openly about how he helped to fix games, revealing exactly what happens on the pitch when a match is being manipulated. He also exposes how the criminal gangs operate, how young professional players are targeted and groomed and the threats of violence that are used to keep them in check. Offering a fascinating insight into the ugly side of the beautiful game, it's a sporting autobiography like none ever written before.

“One of the finest wordsmiths in modern sport . . . with infectious passion and singular craft [Smith] has created a truly fabulous and unique piece of work. On the Grid is incredibly special. I loved every thoughtfully written word.” —Will Buxton, award-winning broadcaster, star of Drive...

Narrated by the daughter of one of the team members, Janice Barton, with unprecedented access to the secrets and insights of the first ever woman's team, this is a multi-generational story celebrating the power of a group of women who refused to accept the status quo - revealing how the events of 1971 shaped mother and daughter's lives both personally and professionally.

Read by the author. As an athlete, you train your body and mind to be ready for competition. But what about your soul? Lead with Faith, Play with Purpose is your guide to exercising your faith, with Andy Dooley as your trainer. As a professional athlete turned pastor--and a passionate leader...

Danny Cipriani has always been searching for something. On the pitch, it was a line-break or space. A chink of light to dart through. An angle that no one else could see. Off the pitch, it was seeking a path through the pressure, fame and chaos that came with being anointed the ‘Saviour of English Rugby’. Who Am I? is the raw and powerful memoir of a man of mercurial talent who, with the world at his feet, made his England rugby debut aged 20.

An All Black's memoir of rugby, dementia, and the hidden cost of success 'The best sports book I have read in decades' - Kevin Norquay, Stuff 'Startlingly honest' - Phil Gifford 'A brilliant read. Bold, brave and honest' - Mike Hosking, Newstalk ZB Carl Hayman, All Black #1000, once the most...