From John Kerry’s wind-surfing debacle to the recent outcry over human-rights abuses in China preceding the Olympics, the intersection of sports and politics has never been clearer. For those who wonder what came before “hockey moms,” or for anyone with memories of the great sports moments of the twentieth century, sportswriter Dave Zirin’s A People’s History Of Sports In The United States (New Press, $26.95) is a must-read. Paying particular attention to race, class, and gender on the American playing field, Zirin examines how sport has both reflected and influenced the larger political culture. Even as he casts well-known figures such as Muhammad Ali and Magic Johnson in a new light, Zirin goes beyond the headlines, telling the stories of collegiate and lower-level athletes and tracing the evolution of American sports from colonial times to the present.
