National Identity And Global Sports Events: Culture, Politics, And Spectacle in the Olympics And the Football World Cup (S U N Y Series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations) [Hardcover]

Alan Tomlinson (Editor), Christopher Young (Editor)

Book Description

Series: S U N Y Series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations | Publication Date: January 26, 2006

Explains why cities dig deep in their pockets to host the Olympics and countries breed teams for success on the world soccer stage.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

National Identity and Global Sports Events looks at the significance of international sporting events and why they generate enormous audiences worldwide. Focusing on the Olympic Games and the men's football (soccer) World Cup, the contributors examine the political, cultural, economic, and ideological influences that frame these events. Selected case studies include the 1936 Nazi Olympics in Berlin, the 1934 World Cup Finals in Italy, the unique case of the 1972 Munich Games, the transformative 1984 Games in Los Angeles, and the 2002 Asian World Cup Finals, among others. The case studies show how the Olympics and the World Cup Finals provide a basis for the articulation of entrenched and dominant political ideologies, encourage persisting senses of national identity, and act as barometers for the changing ideological climate of the modern and increasingly globalized contemporary world. Through rigorous scholarly analyses, the book's contributors help to illuminate the increasing significance of large-scale sporting events on the international stage.

"Rather than focusing either on the Olympics or the men's World Cup, as most scholarship does, this book draws both international sports events together and therefore presents a more powerful and comprehensive analysis of the relationship between sport and the globalization process." — Kimberly S. Schimmel, Kent State University

Contributors include Eduardo Archetti, Claire Brewster, Keith Brewster, Miquel de Moragas, Robert Edelman, Robert S. C. Gordon, Allen Guttmann, Chris Kennett, John London, John J. MacAloon, Tony Mason, David Rowe, Deborah Stevenson, Alan Tomlinson, Soon-Hee Whang, and Christopher Young.

About the Author

Alan Tomlinson is Professor of Leisure Studies, Area Leader for Sport and Leisure Cultures, and Head of Chelsea School Research Centre at the University of Brighton. He is the author and editor of many books, including The Game's Up: Essays in the Cultural Analysis of Sport, Leisure, and Popular Culture. Christopher Young is University Lecturer at the University of Cambridge and Fellow and Director of Studies in Modern and Medieval Languages at Pembroke College. He is the coauthor (with Thomas Gloning) of A History of the German Language Through Texts.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 244 pages
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr (January 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791466159
• ISBN-13: 978-0791466155
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,625,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Cultural History of Sports, December 27, 2007

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This review is from: National Identity And Global Sports Events: Culture, Politics, And Spectacle in the Olympics And the Football World Cup (Suny Series on Sport, ... on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations) (Paperback)

This is a collection of essays about the effects that major sports events have had on countries that hosted the events. The Olympics and Football World Cup are featured, and the authors of each essay explore different aspects of how each society reacted to some peculiar facet of the experience. In Argentina during the 1978 World Cup, a brutal repression of leftist dissidence was going on while the home country was battling for the trophy they eventually won. The author explains how the Cup experience unified even those being imprisoned and tortured with their right wing captors in the headiness of nationalist sports fervor. Similarly, another essay looks at the way South Korea's and Japan's peoples behaved during the joint World Cup they co-hosted in 2002; whereas the Japanese were reserved to the point of banning street viewings on large screen TVs of the matches, the Koreans enthusiastically embraced the tournament that saw their squad advance to the semi-finals. Some essays are more interesting than others, always an issue with such collections of varying writing skills. But all in all a useful summary of the cultural impact that global sports can have.