Bolsmann, Chris and George N. Kioussis, eds. Soccer Frontiers: The Global Game in the United States, 1863-1913. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2021. Pp. 306. $65.00, hard cover and PDF. Reviewed by Daniel Hart Soccer––the “beautiful game”––swept back into the American consciousness this fall with a fine showing by the United States Men’s National Team…
Wolff, Alexander. Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure (Revised and Expanded Twentieth Anniversary Edition). Durham: Duke University Press, 2022. Pp. 424. $24.95 paperback and e-book. Originally reported during a transformative time for basketball in the 1990s, Alexander Wolff’s book was (and unfortunately still remains) a product of its time. However, despite a fascination with…
Catsam, Derek Charles. Flashpoint: How a Little-Known Sporting Event Fueled America’s Anti-Apartheid Movement. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021. Pp. xxviii + 213. 10 unnumbered pages of plates and index. $34.00 hardcover, $32.00 e-book. Reviewed by Tony Calandrillo In Flashpoint: How a Little-Known Sporting Event Fueled America’s Anti-Apartheid Movement, Derek Charles Catsam, Professor of History…
Bunk, Brian B. From Football to Soccer: The Early History of the Beautiful Game in the United States. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2021. Pp. 296. 33 illustrations. $24.95 paper and ebook. Dure, Beau. Why the U.S. Men Will Never Win the World Cup: A Historical and Cultural Reality Check. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. Pp. 246. $29…
By Cat Ariail On November 9, I woke up and opened my computer, preparing to work on my dissertation. Yet the exercise immediately felt pointless. In the aftermath of the previous night’s developments, analyzing the 1951 Pan-American Games seemed both absurd and futile. With the nation’s democratic principles and diverse peoples under threat, academic nuance…
By Russ Crawford, Guest Contributor Fiona Skillen and Carol Osborne recently wrote about the use of oral history in sport history for The International Journal of the History of Sport. In their article they argued that the method should be more widely employed.[1] This post leans heavily on two telephone interviews that I had with…
Sport in American History 