The Modern Olympics: A Struggle for Revival (Paperback)

~ (Author) "It began as sheer poetry..." (more)
Key Phrases: international athletic congress, elitist amateurism, mechanics clause, Athens Olympics, King George, Greek Olympic (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"For more than 100 years, Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France has been glorified as the man who 'invented' the modern Olympic Games. It's not true, says a University of Florida professor. An English physician and a gaggle of 19th century Greeks did more to revive the Games, among them an eccentric philanthropist whose body was buried -- per his instructions -- in Romania, Albania and Athens, according to David C. Young, a classics professor with a long-standing interest in the Olympics." -- Alan Abrahamson, Los Angeles Times

"This book is scholarly, unique, revelatory. And it will be controversial, especially among serious Olympic fans and scholars." -- John A. Lucas, Pennsylvania State University

"David C. Young is a classicist who brings to this already investigated topic a doggedness and enthusiasm that go beyond anything done before. For the community of critical sports historians, this book is a major event." -- Richard D. Mandell, American Historical Review

"Indispensable to all Olympic historians... Young is an enthralling writer... exhaustive research." -- Journal of Olympic History

"Young's research is impeccable." -- Journal of Sport History

Review

"This book is scholarly, unique, revelatory. And it will be controversial, especially among serious Olympic fans and scholars." -- John A. Lucas, Pennsylvania State University

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (August 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801872073
• ISBN-13: 978-0801872075
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,833,454 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine look at the roots of the modern Olympic movement, June 23, 2004

By	Gary M. Greenbaum (Fairfax, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's taken as an article of faith that until Baron Pierre de Coubertin had a brainwave in the early 1890s, no one had thought of putting on an Olympic Games in over a thousand years. Not so. de Coubertin, to use Sir Isaac Newton's phrase, stood on the shoulders of giants.

Chief among those giants was William Penny Brookes, of Much Wenlock, Shropshire, England. From this obscure town, Brookes, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, began an Olympic movement (the games he founded still exist). David C. Young tracks Brookes, and the games (once national in scope) he founded, and Brookes' contacts with and inspiration of de Coubertin.

Young also traces the Athens games, long forgotten, which predated 1896, and another giant, Evangelis Zappas, who gave money and energy to put on these games.

Young also traces the struggle to put on the 1896 Athens games, and gives us a blow by blow account of those games themselves--at which de Coubertin was little thanked. He also gives us a brief, but interesting explanation of why the 1906 Intercalary Olympic Games took place in Athens, and their contribution to the Olympic movement, which in many ways exceeded those of the other early Olympics.

Young sheds light on the background of the modern Olympics, and on figures too long forgotten.

Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Less Coubertin centric view of the Olympics , November 18, 2004

By	Nikephoros Phokas (Dover, NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

In college Young majored in ancient Greek, and did scholarship on Pindar, who wrote poems on athletes who participated in the Olympics and other events.(xi) One day he ran into a reference to a 1930 work by Chrysafis written in Katharevousa, an archaic form of written Greek used much less today(which he could read because of his classical training).(xi-xii) Barely speaking modern Greek at the time, David Young asked at the Greek Olympic Committee about Chrysafis's book and was given by an employee who did not speak English a hardbound copy of that work to keep.(xii- xiii).

Young constantly refers to the Olympics as "our Olympics" and shows great concern for correcting the historical record. He takes time to correct misinformation started by men such as the Anglo-Irishman Mahaffy, who in addition to being a poor classical scholar who started the false myth of ancient Olympic amateurism, had trouble reading and understanding modern Greek, misleading history about the Zappas Olympics which he attended leaving one of the few English language accounts lampooning the event. (198, 49, 197)

David starts his narrative off with the Greek poet Soutsos who was the first in the modern era to propose reviving the ancient Olympics. He also traces Brookes who started the Wenlock and other local and national British Olympics, starting with his first Wenlock Olympian Games in 1851, which happened before Soutsos's suggestion for a Olympic revival in modern Greece was realized in the First Zappas Olympiad of 1859.(10, 21) This is contrary to other Olympic historians who according to this study are more Coubertin centric in their telling of history. Coubertin was instrumental in establishing the international Olympics that are our modern Olympics now are, but he was not the first to start or think of an Olympic revival. He only became concerned about reviving the Olympics after meeting Brookes, though he later was less forthcoming in the influence Brookes had on his international Olympic efforts.

Check out this work if you want to read the work of a historian who is relying on primary Greek sources for the early pre-IOC events like the Zappas Olympiad, a historian who can also read ancient Greek and will not fall for the myths of ancient Olympic amateurism(ancient Olympians were professionals) meant to prop up class exclusive snobbery. This book utilizes alot of unpublished sources like the Brookes Papers in England, the 1894 Paris Athletic Congress papers in Switzerland, the Dragoumis Documents in Greece, etc. and is clearly the work of years and years of research.(171-175)

(*Note*)- The numbers and Roman numerals refer to citations in the book.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book to Read on the History of the Modern Olympic Games, November 11, 2000

By	Franco-British Exhibition (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Modern Olympics: A Struggle for Revival (Hardcover)

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded in 1894 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin. The first President of the IOC was D. Vikelas.

This book shatters the myth that Baron Pierre de Coubertin was solely responsible for the re-establishment of the Olympic Games in the 19th Century. Coubertin was one of many who contributed to the re-establishment of the Olympic Games but most notably: Soutsos (poet), Zappas (philanthropist and founder of the Olympic revival in Greece), Dr Brookes (founder of the Olympic revival in the United Kingdom) and Vikelas (first President of the IOC).

The author documents a history of the Olympic revival and describes the national Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece (the Zappas Games) and in Much Wenlock, Shropshire (United Kingdom) in the mid-1800s. He traces the ideals for the revival of the Ancient Greek Olympics to poems published by the Greek poet Soutsos in the early 1800s.

The author gives properly referenced evidence that Coubertin was inspired by Dr Brookes and documents how the first modern national Olympics were held in Athens and in Much Wenlock.

The first modern international Olympics was held in Athens in 1896 after the establishment of the International Olympic Committee.

Highly recommended book. The only book that I have read that has made a real effort to record the facts on Modern Olympic history in the 19th Century. Very interesting and very easy to read.