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A People's History of Sports in the United States
Dave Zirin
250 Years of Politics, Protest, People, and Play
New Press
September 2008
On Sale: September 1, 2008
320 pages
ISBN: 1595581006
EAN: 9781595581006
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Sports
From the author Robert Lipsyte calls "The best young
sportswriter in America," a rollicking, rebellious, myth-
busting history of sports in America that puts politics in
the ring with pop culture. In this long-awaited book from the rising superstar of
sportswriting, whose blog "The Edge of Sports" is read each
week by thousands of people across the country, Dave Zirin
offers a riotously entertaining chronicle of larger-than-
life sporting characters and dramatic contests and what
amounts to an alternative history of the United States as
seen through the games its people played. Through Zirin's
eyes, sports are never mere games, but a reflection of—and
a spur toward—the political conflicts that shape American
society. Half a century before Jackie Robinson was born, the black
ballplayer Moses Fleetwood Walker brandished a revolver to
keep racist fans at bay, then took his regular place in the
lineup. In the midst of the Depression, when almost no
black athletes were allowed on the U.S. Olympic team,
athletes held a Counter Olympics where a third of the
participants were African American. A People's History of Sports in the United States is
replete with surprises for seasoned sports fans, while
anyone interested in history will be amazed by the
connections Zirin draws between politics and pop flies. As
Jeff Chang, author of Can't Stop Won't Stop, puts
it, "After you read him, you'll never see sports the same
way again."
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