Level Playing Field: African American Athletes and the Republic of Sports Contributor(s): Early, Gerald L. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0674050983 ISBN-13: 9780674050983 Publisher: Harvard University Press
Binding Type: Hardcover Published: April 2011 Click for more in this series: Alain Locke Lecture |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Sports & Recreation | Sociology Of Sports - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - Sports & Recreation | Essays |
Dewey: 796.092 |
LCCN: 2010047288 |
Series: Alain Locke Lecture |
Physical Information: 0.75" H x 4.25" W x 7.35" L (0.73 lbs) 288 pages |
Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - African American |
Features: Bibliography, Dust Cover, Table of Contents |
Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 07/10/2011 pg. 8 Choice 09/01/2011 Reference and Research Bk News 08/01/2011 pg. 53 |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: As Americans, we believe there ought to be a level playing field for everyone. Even if we don't expect to finish first, we do expect a fair start. Only in sports have African Americans actually found that elusive level ground. But at the same time, black players offer an ironic perspective on the athlete-hero, for they represent a group historically held to be without social honor. In his first new collection of sports essays since Tuxedo Junction (1989), the noted cultural critic Gerald Early investigates these contradictions as they play out in the sports world and in our deeper attitudes toward the athletes we glorify. Early addresses a half-century of heated cultural issues ranging from integration to the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Writing about Jackie Robinson and Curt Flood, he reconstructs pivotal moments in their lives and explains how the culture, politics, and economics of sport turned with them. Taking on the subtexts, racial and otherwise, of the controversy over remarks Rush Limbaugh made about quarterback Donovan McNabb, Early restores the political consequence to an event most commentators at the time approached with predictable bluster. The essays in this book circle around two perennial questions: What other, invisible contests unfold when we watch a sporting event? What desires and anxieties are encoded in our worship of (or disdain for) high-performance athletes? These essays are based on the Alain Locke lectures at Harvard University's Du Bois Institute. |
Contributor Bio(s): Early, Gerald L.: - Gerald Early is Professor of English, African and African American Studies, and American Cultural Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. |
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