McClearen, Jennifer. Fighting Visibility: Sports Media and Female Athletes in the UFC. Urbana: The University of Illinois Press. 2021. Pp. 232. Acknowledgements, appendices, notes, references, index, introduction, photographs. $110 cloth, 24.95 paper, $14.95 ebook. Reviewed by Russ Crawford A common challenge that women’s sports faces is a lack of visibility. Numerous academic and popular books and…
Cooky, Cheryl and Michael Messner. No Slam Dunk: Gender, Sport and the Unevenness of Social Change. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2018. Pp. 314. Notes, index, and 19 tables. $42.95 paperback, EPUB, and PDF. $39.95 Kindle. Reviewed by Cat Ariail Are we finally approaching a much anticipated watershed in women’s sport? This summer, the…
Newman, Roberta J. Here’s the Pitch: The Amazing, True, New, and Improved Story of Baseball and Advertising. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. Pp. 319. Bibliography, epilogue, illustrations, index and notes. $34.95 hardback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo. “What a combination, all across the nation.” The 1960s jingle, “Baseball and Ballantine,” hawked beer, but it aptly…
Editor’s Note: “Sport in American History” is excited to cross-post Richard C. Crepeau’s “Sport and Society” column. This post was originally published on February 27, 2018. A full archive of his Crepeau’s columns can be found by clicking here. By Richard C. Crepeau Looking back over the Winter Olympics several events stand out and various aspects of the NBC…
Kimball, Richard Ian. Legends Never Die: Athletes and Their Afterlives in Modern America. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2017. Pp. 211. Notes, bibliography, and index. $55.00 hardcover. $19.95 paperback and ebook. Reviewed by Cat Ariail In Legends Never Die, Richard Ian Kimball concisely and critically considers the invention of the afterlives of American athletic heroes.…
Tonight, the first of two semi-final games in the 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) will be held at Dodger Stadium, in Los Angeles, California, when the Netherlands takes on the 2016 runner-up Puerto Rico. Tomorrow, the United States will attempt to reach its first championship final in the tournament when it faces two-time WBC champion…
This post is the first in our Life and Legacy of Muhammad Ali Series guest edited by Andrew R.M. Smith. Muhammad Ali was a complex figure and he had a large influence beyond the United States. The goal of these posts is to explore various aspects of Ali’s life and reflect on his legacies, offering insight into understudied…
This week we’re offering our thoughts and reflections on the recently completed Rio Olympics. Today is part two of our roundtable. It features a Q&A with four of our contributors — Cat Ariail, Josh Howard, Andrew McGregor, and Lindsay Parks Pieper — about their views on the Rio Olympics and its legacy as both scholars and sports fans. Feel…
Last night NBC aired the Closing Ceremony of the Rio Olympics, officially ending the Games of the XXXI Olympiad. The contributors to Sport in American History watched many of the 306 athletic events over the past 19 days with enthusiasm and interest. This week on the blog we offer our thoughts and reflections as both scholars…
Lamb, Chris, ed. From Jack Johnson to LeBron James: Sports, Media, and the Color Line. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2016. 648 pp. $35.00 paperback. Reviewed by Kate Aguilar On January 7, 2016, ESPN radio host Dan Le Batard interviewed hip hop artist, author, and public speaker Chuck D, former leader of the rap group…
Sport in American History 