Vogan, Travis. Keepers of the Flame: NFL Films and the Rise of Sports Media. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014. Pp. ii + 238. Notes and Index. $90 hardback, $25 paperback. Reviewed by Stephen Townsend Travis Vogan has a reputation as a lucid and aggressive interrogator of sporting cultures. So, when I was asked to…
Cahn, Susan K. Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Women’s Sport (2nd edition). Urbana, Chicago, & Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2015. Pp. xiii+395. Notes, index, and black and white photographs. $95 hardcover, $25 paperback. Reviewed by Colleen English Susan Cahn’s first edition of Coming on Strong, originally published in 1994, serves as a…
Hart, Jon. Man Versus Ball: One Ordinary Guy and His Extraordinary Sports Adventures. Lincoln: Nebraska University Press, 2013. Pp. 184. $24.95 clothback. Reviewed by Lindsay Parks Pieper As a graduate student in a sport finance class, I was assigned to cover the Women’s Football Alliance’s semi-professional team, the Columbus Comets. To get a closer look…
Schultz, Jaime. Qualifying Times: Points of Change in U.S. Women’s Sport. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2014. Pp. xiv +280. Illustrations, notes, index. $95 cloth back, $26 paperback. Reviewed by Bieke Gils Yes, there are things to cheer about when considering the changes in U.S. women’s sport over the past century; however, as Jaime…
Hines, James R. Figure Skating in the Formative Years: Singles, Pairs, and the Expanding Role of Women. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2015. Pp. xv+262. Notes, index, appendices, 38 black and white photographs, 1 table. $29 clothback, ebook. Reviewed by Cat Ariail In my earliest sport watching memory, my mom, sister, and I sit…
Surdam, David George. The Big Leagues Go to Washington: Congress and Sports Antitrust, 1951-1989. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015. Pp. viii+240. Notes, index, and appendices. $65 Hardcover. Reviewed by Aaron L. Haberman Ever since the passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890 with its prohibition on monopolies that result in a “restraint of…
Walker, James R. Crack of the Bat: A History of Baseball on the Radio. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015. Pp. xiv+305. Notes, index, and appendices. $28.95 clothback. Reviewed by Hunter M. Hampton I began writing this review on the Monday after my Texas Rangers won the American League West. In case you missed it,…
Bayne, Bijan C. Martha’s Vineyard Basketball: How a Resort League Defied Notions of Race and Class. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. Pp. xv + 213. $40.00 clothback. Reviewed by Tyran Kai Steward In 1975, Universal Pictures released the blockbuster film Jaws, the Steven Spielberg-directed American thriller based on Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel of the…
Osmond, Gary and Murray Phillips, eds. Sport History in the Digital Era. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015. xii + 279. Notes, Index. $60 Clothback. Reviewed by Andrew McGregor Digital history and the digital humanities often seem like opaque buzzwords conceived by young, tech-savvy scholars trying to gain a foothold in an increasingly competitive academic…
Crepeau, Richard C. NFL Football: A History of America’s New National Pastime. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014. Pp. 256. Notes, bibliography, and index. $95.00 clothback, $19.95 paperback. Reviewed by Andrew D. Linden Throughout this weekend, football is king. On Thursday, the Patriots defeated the Steelers, with an impressive performance by embattled quarterback Tom Brady.…
Sport in American History 