Review of Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson

Brown, Ashley. Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2024. Pp. 616. $29.95 hardcover. Reviewed by Bill Pruden Before there was the Williams sisters, there was Althea Gibson. In the late 1950s, her efforts cracked open the formerly-closed door to the historically all-white, upper-class world of tennis to the…

Review of Without Helmets or Shoulder Pads

Muchnick, Irvin. Without Helmets or Shoulder Pads: The American Way of Death in Football Conditioning. Toronto: ECW Books, 2023. Pp. 180. $26.95 CAD paperback. Reviewed by Łukasz Muniowski When thinking about the causes of football-related deaths, the first thing that comes to mind is concussions, which continue to be a subject of conversation. However, Irvin Muchnick’s…