Rethinking the Olympics

by Barney, Robert K.

• ISBN13: 9781935412052
• ISBN10: 1935412051
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-01
• Publisher: Natl Book Network

Summary

This anthology of essays, previously published in Olympika: The International Journal of Olympic Studies, addresses key themes in the scholarly study of the Games. Part I of Rethinking the Olympics presents seven articles devoted to Olympic history: the Games' legacy from antiquity, their modern evolution, and the most controversial Games of the modern era, the Berlin Games of 1936. Part II deals with the persistent problems and crises that confounded and defined the Olympic Games over time. The nine essays in this section focus on a variety of issues such as: performance enhancement; the rise of commercialism; enduring controversies in the form of leadership, corruption, and the Cold War; and the politics of hosting Olympic Games. Finally, in Part III, the future of the Modern Olympic Movement is addressed from the perspective of the rapidly accelerating and mushrooming process of globalization. Book jacket.

Author Biography

\Robert Barney is the author of Selling the Five Rings: The International Olympic Committee and the Rise of Olympic Commercialism and founding director emeritus of the International Center for Olympic Studies, School of Kinesiology, University of Western Ontario.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. v
Setting the Stage
The Legacy of Antiquity
Stadium and Arena: Reflections on Greek, Roman, and Contemporary Social History	p. 3
The Olympic Games 393 A.D.-1896 A.D.: The Genealogy of an Idea in Literature, Music, and Dance	p. 17
On The Source of the Olympic Credo	p. 42
More on the Olympic Saying, It's More Important	p. 52
Modern Evolution
Coubertin's Ideology of Olympism from the Perspective of the History of Ideas	p. 63
Cosmopolitanism, Olympism, and Nationalism: A Critical Interpretation of Coubertin's Ideal of International Sporting Life	p. 95
The Most Controversial Games-Berlin 1936
France, Coubertin, and the Nazi Olympics: The Response	p. 110
The Nazi Olympics: A Reinterpretation	p. 133
Persistent Problems, Issues, and Crises
Performance Enhancement
"Cells or Soaring?": Historical Reflections on Visions of the Body, Athletics, and Modern Olympism	p. 165
Sport, Drugs, and the Cold War: The Conundrum of Olympic Doping Policy, 1970-1979	p. 190
The Rise of Commercialism
Marketing National Identity: The Olympic Games of 1932 and American Culture	p. 212
Family Feud: Revenue and IOC-USOC Relations	p. 242
Enduring Controversies
The Rise and Fall of Soviet Olympic Champions	p. 284
Persistent Resistance: Leadership Positions for Women in Olympic Sport Governing Bodies	p. 307
Gifts of Corruption? Ambiguities of Obligation in the Olympic Movement	p. 330
The Politics of Hosting Olympic Games
Olympic Hosting in Canada: Promotional Ambitions, Political Challenges	p. 357
The "Mormon Games": Religion, Media, Cultural Politics and the Salt Lake Winter Games	p. 379
Globalization and Facing the Future
Modern Sport and Olympic Games: The Problematic Complexities Raised by the Dynamics of Globalization	p. 435
About the Authors	p. 477
About the Editor	p. 481
Index	p. 483
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