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Winning is the Only Thing -- Book Review
Roberts, R. And Olson, J. (1989). Winning is the Only Thing- Sports in America Since
Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
For the American paradigm, winning World War II caused a domino effect of many changes in culture, politics, technology, sociology, gender, and certainly the way most American's perceived themselves and their relationship with the rest of the world. By 1946 the glow of the end of the war had faded a bit with the realization that a new war, a Cold War, between the United States and its former ally, the Soviet Union, was tantamount to a moral imperative to control the world
Similarly, the inrush of former GIs, a GI bill authorizing education and housing opportunities, the new automobile culture, suburbia, and in the 1950s, the television absolutely transformed America's leisure time and rabid fascination with the sporting world. Baseball had already become America's national sport, and indeed was one of the first indications of integration long before the Civil Rights push in the 1950s, but after World War II, African-Americans were also allowed into baseball and basketball. Now, with more discretionary income, combined with televised sporting events, Americans not only saw integration at work, they were able to participate, even vicariously,...
And, like many things American, it was not possible to keep sports contained. Indeed, within just a few decades, the American sporting world became a multi-billion dollar industry. Sports in America is both a study of the evolution of popular culture in America post-World War II and a way of explaining the tremendous popularity of the entire genre into a "lens through which tens of millions Americans interpreted the significance of their country, their communities, their families, and themselves" (p.xi). Too, much as the world has globalized through the advent of institutionalized advertising and marketing, Sports in America shows how sports has become a national obsession, really the new cultural currency of the land -- and part of the secularization of America. In fact, the authors posit that by the late 1970s and early 1980s, Americans had a new religion -- sports -- in which they worshiped as the major focus in their lives. This has become so endemic, according to the authors, that rather than being part of leisure activity, sports in America have become their own raison d'etre and have taken on a life of their own, often transposing semblance…
References:
Halpert, F.E. (1990). Business as Usual. The Nation. Cited in:
http://www.thenation.com/authors/fe-halpert
Winning is the Only Thing -- Book Review Roberts, R. And Olson, J. (1989). Winning is the Only Thing- Sports in America Since Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. The end of World War II brought a number of changes to the United States. Culture, politics, civil rights, technology, gender issues, and certainly by 1949 a new cloud had formed over the world, the U.S./Soviet rivalry known as the Cold War. When one
Winning the Civil War The American Civil War is considered the most costly of all the wars fought by this nation in terms of the human lives that were lost and the casualties which left young men mutilated, amputated, and barely able to carry on. Approximately 750,000 young men died by the war's end either from wounds inflicted in battle or from infection and lack of sanitation in hospitals.[footnoteRef:1] At the
Winning the Lottery Almost every individual has dreamed about winning the state lottery and having millions of dollars to spend. While some individuals have elaborate fantasies of what they would do if they won the state lottery, others have more generalized notions. Examples of common visions individuals have about winning the state lottery include buying new car or house, making donations to charities, quitting work, traveling, etc. However, few individuals are
since they are all based on hard work while using steroids is not; it is a short cut to gaining an unfair advantage. Is it Ethical to Use Animals in Sports? Another interesting ethical issue in sports is the morality of using animals in sports and whether it is right to use them in bloodsports such as cockfighting. In order to understand the issue we have to go back in time
Chinua Achebe presents an archetypal patriarchal warrior with the character of Okonkwo in the novel Things Fall Apart. Okonkwo is described as being “well known,” his fame being based on quintessential masculine feats like winning wrestling tournaments and having many wives. A round character, rather than a dynamic one, Okonkwo also epitomizes the classical tragic hero whose hubris and stubbornness prevent him from changing or recognizing what he could do
Negotiations The order in which things are said is almost as important as what is said, and in some cases it is even more important. This has been a long-recognized fact in the world of rhetoric and basic composition from time immemorial. It is only relatively recently, however, that this fundamental truth has been explicitly and consciously explored in the realm of negotiating and information strategy. The additional factor of who