McNess, Matthew James. Sport Philosophy Now: The Culture of Sports after the Lance Armstrong Scandal. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. Pp. 288. Bibliography, Index, and Notes. $80.00 hardback, $79.99 ebook. Reviewed by Cat Ariail Throughout the 2016 Democratic Party primary, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has railed against the institutions and policies that produce economic…
By Cat Ariail Throughout this season, the NBA commentariat has sought to find the best historical comparison for the league’s newly-minted, unanimous MVP, Steph Curry. While many see Curry’s game as the evolutionary combination of Pete Maravich and Steve Nash, former NBA greats Oscar Robertson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have expressed their lack of astonishment, comparing Curry to…
By Cat Ariail Tomorrow night, the University of Connecticut’s Breanna Stewart and Moriah Jefferson will attempt to make college basketball history. With a victory over Syracuse, Stewart and Jefferson will become the first athletes to complete a national championship grand slam, winning a title each of their four years (when UCLA won ten of twelve men’s…
Austin, Brad. Democratic Sports: Men’s and Women’s College Athletics during the Great Depression. Fayetteville, AR: The University of Arkansas Press, 2015. Pp. 268. Notes, essay on sources, and index. $29.95 paperback. Reviewed by Cat Ariail In recent years terms such as “fairness” and “justice” have dominated debates about college sports. While defenders of the status…
By Cat Ariail On June 25, 2013, Texas Senator Wendy Davis engaged in an eleven-hour filibuster to attempt to defeat Senate Bill 5, which severely would restrict access to abortion. Throughout her marathon filibuster session, Davis wore a pair of pink Mizuno Wave Rider 16 running shoes. In media coverage of the filibuster, Davis’s pink…
Overmyer, James E. Black Ball and the Boardwalk: The Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, 1916-1929. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2014. 30 Photos, Appendices, Notes, Bibliography, Index. Pp. 284. $39.95 softback. Plott, William J. The Negro Southern League: A Baseball History, 1920-1951. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2015. 30 Photos, Appendices,…
Henne, Kathryn E. Testing for Athlete Citizenship: Regulating Doping and Sex in Sport. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2015. Appendix, notes, bibliography, and index. $90 clothback. $28.95 paperback, web PDF, and epub. Reviewed by Cat Ariail In my last blog post, I used the story of Carlota Gooden to introduce the possibility of athletic…
By Cat Ariail At the 1959 Pan-American Games in Chicago, Illinois, Carlota Gooden, a twenty-two year-old Panamanian sprinter descended from Barbadian canal workers, won two silver medals and a bronze. Her performances in the 100-meter sprint, 4×100-meter relay, and 60-meter dash entered her name in the official records of international track, a permanent inscription that…
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…
By Cat Ariail The New York City Marathon, scheduled for November 1, 2015, represents the premier event on the fall running calendar. Last year, women composed 20,572 of the 50,896 entrants, a number that correlates with the twenty-first century rise in female participation in distance running events. While men still are the majority of marathon…
Sport in American History 