Sport History Exam 1

Sport as a "Site of Resistance"

The form that sports should take. The form of participation. Emphasis of some activities while others are de-emphasized. Who does or does not participate? Where, when, why, and how they participate?

Fordism and "Standardization"

The hallmark of this Fordism was standardization. 1) Standardization production has the standardized components, standardized manufacturing, and a simple, easy to manufacture standardized products. It is made possible the moving or continuous, assembly line. Economic scale. 2)Standardized accumulation was that Ford's Model-T was "available in any color so long as it was black."

Historical Investigation

The historian's job is therefore to find evidence, analyze its content and biases, corroborate it with other evidence, and use the evidence to develop an interpretation of past events that has some importance for the present. Traditionally, the focus of history has been large-scale, national global events, institutions, and practice: wars, governments, etc.

Qualified Objectivity

The importance outcomes of these criticisms and recognitions 1) acknowledges the subjectivity (personal biography) of the author, 2) acknowledges the no knowledge is neutral, 3) acknowledges that all knowledge is contentious and that its production involves struggles between different interest groups. Professor Donald Miller said this history is a "crippled discipline" which can't get at the truth. Also, that the historian has his or her own point of view perspective.

What is meant by the term "Fordism?"

The nation-based form of industrial capitalism which came to the fore in the early decades if the last century. Fordism refers to the system of mass production and consumption characteristics of highly developed economies. Under Fordism, mass production to produce sustained national economic growth and widespread material advancement.

Sport, Leisure, and Industrialism

The time and discipline. It was an increasing, distinction between work and leisure times and actions. Distinctive, gender, class, and race boundaries. Sports rationalized on grounds of "improvement."

Higginson

There was the Rise of "muscular Christianity." It was building a sound mind, body, and spirit (necessarily...) It articulates physical prowess with the economic health of the nation. The body in service to the nation. It imparted a moral valve to sporting participation. Lastly, there was the Health as a civic obligation. Ex) Christy Mathewson (c. 1990). This is in terms of popular culture. He was a pitcher for the Yankees and a good sport.

"New" History

These societal pressures created change for historical investigation... Gaining understandings society, culture and power meant that the focal point for history has become the relationships between a given cultural form (Ex. Sport) and 1) social structures and processes (Ex. (sub) urbanization, passages from agrarian to commercial urban (post)industrial societies and... 2) Social constructions (Ex. Race, gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality nation), at various points in time.

What are the 7 Characteristics in which Guttman proposes distinguish modern sport from previous eras?

They are 1) The Sacred and the Secular. From ceremonial (to please the gods) to activities for their own sake. 2) Equality. Everyone has the opportunity to compete. Conditions are the same for competitors. 3) Specialization of Roles. Gradual "development" to the division of labor. 4) Rationalization. Rules and application of "science." 5) Bureaucracy. Administration and power. 6) Quantification. From winning as sufficient to statistics. 7) The Quest for Records. Collapsing of space and time. Guttman provides an account that suggests linearity. However, while there may be many key differences, there are also similarities and continuities. To understand contemporary sporting spectacles, stars, subjectivities, signs, and spaces Then we must understand how they have been shaped by primitive, ancient, medieval, colonial, and post-bellum cultures. Exemplars of these processes: The use, maintenance, management and centrality of the (male) body. The role of violence (or physicality) within sporting practice.

Conceptualizing social and cultural history in this way allows for a focus on what sport history scholar Stephen Hardy calls "long residuals."

This means searching for the continuities and discontinuities in socio-political forms, practices, and institutions. By examining these continuities and discontinuities, we can begin to identify important practices and ideas that tie the present to the past. This allows us to see social transformations as processes that take place over "contested terrains." Ex) Basketball in 1920s urban areas.

Section 2: From Ritual to Record

Through fully engaging with the lecture and reading material, we will examine people's sporting practices in an effort to find out more about American societies at particular periods of time. Read Ch. 2 of Reiss book. King James I Identifies Lawful Sports in England, 1816. An Englishman's Positive Impressions of Virginia Racing, 1772. Elkanah Watson's Misgivings on Cockfighting, 1878. George Catlin Describes a Choctaw 1834 Lacrosse Match. Timothy Breen, "The Cultural Significance of Gambling Among the Gentry of Virginia." Nancy Struna, Sporting Life in the Taverns."

Why do we we study history?

To understand American society at particular points in time. Also to understand the present. Example would be, "The present is informed by the past, and shaped by the past." Last is to better understand our place in history.

History and Objective

Traditionally, the essences of the discipline that historical knowledge represents the past as it was. Deeply embedded in the notion that history shows the past as it actually happened was an acceptance that historical practice is objective. The heroic models of science prompted historians to become like scientists and turn themselves into "neutral" investigators in order to reconstruct the past exactly as it happened. In the late 20th Century, social critics and skeptics attacked these models of science.

Medieval Social Stratification

Upper class in medieval Europe paid little attention to the leisure of peasants. The games were seen as a safety valve to defuse mass social discontent. The gender restrictions grounded in a combination of religious teachings and patriarchal social structure. Among the upper classes, feminine beauty was defined in passive terms. The less active, the more likely she would be perceived to be as beautiful. Repeated in US. Still evident in today's culture.

Progressive Programs and Physical Activity

Urban playgrounds. Some school physical education programs. Public school athletic leagues. Urban parks movement. YMCA/YWCA's. Industrial recreation. With this, businesses, etc. started fielding industrial leagues. The means of directing employees in physical activity.

Capitalism

Usually defined as the private ownership of means of production.

Capitalizing on the Age of Play

Video Clip #4

Sports in Violence in Medieval England

Violent tenor of 13th and 14th century of English society. "That sports and recreations resulted in violence in also seems..." Why were sports and recreations so violent? The extensive consumption of alcohol, carrying of weapons, and the presence of gambling.

The Leisure Class and Conspicuous Consumption

Wealth soon became shorthand for social superiority. More wealth meant even more regard. So people respected the banker more than the garbage man, even though the latter might work harder. But since status is relative, one person's gain is another's loss. A spiraling contest develops. Being bank-rich quickly becomes a poor way to broadcast one's superiority. Money is only worth anything if it's flaunted (spent on things beyond basic needs.) "No merit would accure from consumption of the bare necessities of life... In order to be reputable it must be wasteful." Conspicuous consumption didn't just confine itself to the rich. The poor, didn't want it to fight those above them, they wanted to be like them. All classes try to live beyond their means. "No class society, not even the abjectly poor, forgoers all customary conspicuous consumption."

Harvard-Oxford 1869

What do we know about this race already? C. 1850s- (professional rowing is HUGE. Amateur rowing, not so much (only Harvard, Yale, and Brown had teams). 1867 at the Paris Exposition in France. Team from Canada defeated London and Oxford teams. It became NATIONAL HEROES in Canada (would be known as the Paris Crew or Paris Four).

Consumer Culture

What is consumer culture? It is a culture or consumption? A mass production, mass marketing. A credit and installment plans. All of which encourage consumption. The culture of market-based society. Consumer (as opposed to production) driven. "Consumption became the national religion" (Dyreson, p. 220). Consumer commodities became an increasingly important means of negotiating identity and statues. A shift from a focus in individual action to identification with community. "Other-directed" code of behavior such as class distinctions (class status), "conspicuous consumption," and Ex) the "leisure class."

Female Greek Olympics

While prohibited from "the Olympics," women held their own games at Olympia. It was dedicated to the goddess Hera and emerged from "fertility right." The physical prowess was not consistent with dominant definitions of heterosexual femininity, as such the sexual identity of strong and physical skilled women (including the Goddess) was questioned.

Characteristics of Greek Athletics

Win at all costs attitude (2nd and 3rd was a disgrace and often ended in death). Athletes were not often nude. "Gymna" (Greek for totally naked)- "Gymnasium). It is likely there was minimal (thong or infibulation) support. Greek "sports" reproduced dominant patterns of social relations such as the power and advantages of being male, wealthy and young.

Status Politics: "Conspicuous Consumption"

"By the fifties, the Smiths had to have the Joneses' fully automatic washing machine, vacuum cleaner, and most of all, the shiny new Chevrolet parked in the driveway. The story of this period was that people looked to their own neighborhoods for their spending cues, and the neighborhoods grew more alike in what they had. Like compared with like the strove to be even more alike," (Schor, 1998: 8)

This course draws upon new developments within sport history that?

"Have been less concerned with conventional periodization, inclusive themes of class, gender, race, and ethnicity that currently define the parameters of social and cultural history." The type of approach requires a fundamental understanding of the relationships between sport and society. The Constitution of Society. Economic, technological, social, and cultural arrangements?

Babe Ruth: The "Contemporary" Sport Hero (1927)

"Ruth emerged as a larger-than-life figure offering relief to, or compensation for, the American masses suffering through the trails of the Great Depression. The, as well his astounding on-field performances, explains his truly iconic status."

The Theory of the Leisure Class

"The Theory of the Leisure Class" is written by a then-unknown economics instructor named Thorstein Veblen. Its most famous colnage: "conspicuous consumption." Veblen deconstructed the consumer culture of the early 1900s and came to an unpopular conclusion, America's "if you got it, flaunt it" ideologies could be explained by the desired for status. What else but America's emerging driving to best the Joneses explain, $6,000 Sub-Zero refrigerators Also, Ford's 19-foot-long Excursion SUV, the largest mass-production vehicle on the road, almost a foot longer than its most bloated competitor?

The Fordist "System"

"less a mere system and more as a total way of life. Mass production meant standardization of product as well as mass consumption; and that meant a whole new aesthetic and a commodification culture." (Harvey, 1989, p. 135). Mass produced and mass marketed good. Cars, home appliances, radio networks, motion picture industry, revolutionary advertising techniques, chain store empires, credit and investment purchase plans. An emergence of a new social order which made consumption, rather than production, the fundamental motif of economic action. A consumer ideology institutionalized.

At various points in time, in different civilizations, there have existed the roots (both in terms of continuities and discontinuities between the past and present) of the contemporary sporting world...

1) Equality of matches, 2) Gambling, 3) Exclusion of women, 4) Social class as an organization principle, 5) (Diminishment of?) Violence, 6) Displays of bodies, 7) Attraction of the home and heterosexual gaze, 8) Stadia, spectacle, and star performers, 9) Slavery and exploitation, 10) Political (national) propaganda, 11) Bodies as representative subjectivity, 12) Physical suffering, 13) Sport as a space of male theater, 14) Display of masculinity, and 15) The work ethic.

Sport and Leisure: From Production to Consumption

1st Phase of the industrial revolution is the rapid economic expansion such as producer goods (Ex. steel for the railway) and sport as a social technology. 2nd Phase is the manufacturer and sale of goods to million of individuals and sport as a commodity.

Fordism and the Expansion of (American) Capitalism

Although marked by the Great Depression, WWII and the Cold War, Fordist America allowed for 1) the growth and power of the US, 2) the legitimation of Capitalism as the socio-economic formation, 3) increased development of communication and transportation technologies, and 4) the growth and power of large corporations. How does this relate to sport?

Why then, in Greek artifacts are males presented nude?*

An artistic convention fully in line with Greek bodily display.

Sporting Bodies in Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek Hedonist had glorified the body. A beautiful body is the first step on the way to absolute beauty and gods. (Plato)

The Role of Social Class

Appeal to moral sentiment, voiced by poets, pietists, and philosophers, was interwoven with economic consideration. The animal sports ran counter to "the work ethic" (such sports encouraged the lower classes in drunkenness, gambling, and absenteeism). Class-based criticisms? The middle-class fears of working-class practices.

The "Celebritization" of American Sport

At least the establishment of the first newspaper sport section in 1895, in Williams Randolph Hearst's New York Journal had celebrated individuals who have been an important aspect of sport cultures. Hearst's sport section initiative was soon copied elsewhere, and provided a mechanism for the transformation of notable athletes into widely celebrated figures. Through this, a process of familiarization which had given the public's growing interest in sport stars becomes an effective means of increasing newspaper circulation.

Why is sport important?

Attention and ratings: major events gather large audiences (increasingly rare in current media climate), sports represent 1% of all TV programming but 41% of TV-related tweets center around sport.*

Babe Ruth: The Archetype of Consumer Culture's Brand of Celebrity

Babe was the ideal hero for the world on consumption, a Puritan rebel. He provided sensational feats that fans increasingly demanded. An idol of consumption- tales of his personal life and his exaggerated public persona such as booting liquor, food consumption, "sultan of swat and bedroom."

The Sporting "Boom" (1860-1890)

Between 1860 and 1890 many modern sports emerged. American Football (1870s-80s). Baseball (1858), NABP on July 20th (NY v. Brooklyn), 1869- Cincinnati Red Stockings (1876), (1880). Track and Field (1860s-70s). In 1896, US Olympic Committee, in 1904 was the St. Louis Olympics. Basketball and Volleyball (1892). The NBL in 1898. Bicycling (1860s-70s)

The Mass Workforce

By the 1950s, the rise of mass production had made them the largest single group in every developed country. Already organized by their employers, they were easily mobilized on behalf of their own interest. Labor unions emerged as the best-organized and often the most powerful political force. Their preferences were reflected not only in labor laws, but in public policy generally.

New Paradigms

Civil Rights, etc.

The Development of Sporting Economies

Clubs and associations formed by subscribing members. Competitions with prize money. Imposing venues with large capacities. A labor market to handle transfer and valuation of sports workers. Sportswear and merchandise that are manufactured and sold. Newspapers, magazines, newsreel, film, radio (and later television) became devoted to sport.

Sociological Imagination

Created by C. Wright Mills. It is a framework for understanding how the socio-historical context in which you live informs your individual choices and chances. Also it is 1) How lives are influenced by the society in which they live. 2) How personal biography intersects with history to inform social reality. This reflects on your own biography in attempt to better understand your place in history.

1920s Newreel: The Red(Read) Grange Factor

Elite performance, commercial promotion, and press elaboration. Video Clip #5.

Animal "Sports" and Violent Societies

Elizabeth I delighted in bearbaiting and, in 1591, prohibited theaters from performing plays in Thursday because they interfered with "the game of bear-baiting, and like pastimes, which are maintained for her Majesty's pleasure." James I, too "really enjoyed the butcherly sport." The Baiting was the inequality of the animals/contest. The Cockfight centers on more less evenly matched birds. The animals often symbolized their owners' of backers' identity (masculine, sexual, etc.).

Advertising and Consumer Culture

Emergence of mass advertising in 1920s. Mass marketing of ideologies. Buying an image rather than a product, "lifestyles and values packaged as product" (Dyreson, p, 220). Status through consumption rather than hard work. Advertising helped shape a new reality. It gave new meaning to the hallowed American phrase, "the pursuit of happiness." Madison avenue thrust the fruits of the machine process into every home, creating a rising tide of affluent expectation. Sales pitches contained ideological messages such as The American Dream, material plenty, and the march toward modernity. The commercialization of sport and the commodification of athletes (transformed from casual players into sports workers selling their athletic labor power as product bought and sold on the sport market) has mass appeal for the emergent entreprneurialist capitalist class looking to accumulate wealth by marketing and selling goods and services.

Government Regulation

Enabled Fordism to develop in a more or less stable manner. Keynesian welfare state, with its goals of full employment, social security, and income parity. The stable growth, rising consumption, increased social welfare (Keynesianism) 'socially cemented the regime.

Consumer Culture and the Emergence of Sporting Idols

Entrepreneurs began to recognize the possibilities of marketing athletics to the new bread of American consumers. Individuals who achieved against the odds due to the adherence to values of perseverance, hard work and clean living. Indicative of a popular culture of compensation. Ex) Ronald Reagan/John Wayne- The classic Western hero.

The Body as Empire (Roman Empire)

Gladiators were always dressed up to resemble barbarians. Whether they really were or not, the fighters would be clad in exotic and purposely strange weapons. The more far-fetched the weapons and armor were, the more barbarous the gladiators appeared to Roman eyes. This also made the fights a celebration of Rome's empire.

Beecher

Health of women= health of a nation. Preserving her health helped preserve the health of the nation in a very literal sense. Ex) Western Expansion- "only hearty women could endure and spread their moral attributes and the seed of democracy in the American West." (Borish 1987)

Sport and Capitalism

Hence, new definitions of the role of sport began to emerge: Rather than being a diversion, organized competitive games were tools for achieving economic progress and social development. Sport became linked with economic productivity, national loyalty, the development of admirable character traits, especially among young white males.

Modern sport forms can trace their genesis back to the early 19th century British bourgeois-aristocratic class, when public school sport was reformed due to its ill-discipline and brutality. Hence, the (often very unique) team sports of particular schools (e.g., Eton) became modified and codified in accordance with the emergent middle-class sensibilities of:

Homosocial heterosexuality, Gentlemanliness, Modesty, Loyalty, Fair play, Bravery, Self-control, Mind-body balance, Sport for its own sake, Patriotism, and Anglo-centrism.

But let's not forget...

In 1852, Harvard and Yale HAD rowing crews, and their competitions were very important to school prestige. The business model of control and efficiency applied to 'amateur sport'. In 1864, Yale' crew coach implemented the "training table" (strict food diet). A form of (19th Century) professionalism took hold.

The Social and Economic Context of the "Age of Play"

In 1920s America, a number of significant social and economic transformation were taking place. Prior to WWI, assembly line technologies, new communications and transport systems, and the emergence of national market. This leads to the burgeoning consumer culture of the 1920s... Fodism is the Mode of Regulation + Standardized Accumulation and "Mass Production Creates Mass Consumption." For Stimulating Consumption, Ford offered his workers the then extraordinary sum of $5 per hour to put up with the alienating practices in his plants, $5 which was meant not only to stimulate production but also to stimulate (the ideology of) consumption, hopefully of Ford cars.

The Emergence of Sponsorship

In 1928, Coca Cola begins marketing partnership with the Olympics. In 1934, Ford signs a $400,000, 4-year deal to sponsor the World Series radio broadcasts.

The Emergence of the Leisure Class

In the earliest societies man worked in groups to survive. Class distinctions didn't exist. Work was shared and not frowned upon. Men strove to outdo each other in activities such as hunting. The most successful were held high esteem by others. Their prowess granted them privileges, women and other rewards. Eventually, Veblen argues, cultures developed so that those with prowess simply took from others either by tribute or by vanquishing the enemy. Physical labor became delcasse, a sign of inferiority. The "indignity" of labor (Veblen, p. 17). Today, think of the term "blue collar," and its often negative associations.

What was the Industrial Economy?

Increased output of machine-made goods that began in England during the 18 century.*

Industrialization and Physical Activity

Industrialization provided urbanization and population growth, immigration, urban poverty, and overcrowding. Health concerns over the productivity of workers mean a new drive for fitness, gymnastics, and calisthenics. "Progressives" argued physical activity such as Health benefits, developed discipline, physical, intellectual, and moral capacities. They also provided an alternative to street life (crime, gangs, etc.) They learned to compete in a fair and orderly system= Americanize/assimilate.

What does (British) Amateurism imply?

It implies the shift towards Capitalism and Industrialization had a profound impact upon the meanings, forms, and structures that became attributed to emergent sports.

The Renaissance (1400-1750)

It was heavily influenced by an appeal to moral sentiments. The Renaissance Christians were denounced ascetics and advocated looking after the body. The emergence of the philosophies of the outset of the Industrial Revolution.

Who are the 10 most important people in the history of US report?

Joseph Pulitzer, etc.

The Context of the Boom

Maturing commercial and industrial economies. There was the expansive geographic spread. Increased technology. Transportation and communication changes. Rapid population growth, both natural and second wave immigrants (voluntary). Urbanization as winning teams became symbols of success. There was an increased recreation time because production was faster.

Industrialism

Mechanized industries. A shift from agriculture to industry. "Dirty" technologies. Mass industrial labor force. Mass manufacturing of material commodities. National-grounded economy. The emergence of modern sporting style. In addition, the emergence of a new system of material production, economic operation, and social structure... (Capitalism).

Side-by-side, we see the advent of the model we have today

Money is involved (coach and spectator). The athletes are tutored in academics. Year-round training programs. Rationalized work schedules.

(British) Amateurism

Never compete in an open competition. Never compete for public money. Never compete for gate money. Never compete with a professional. Never teach or pursue athletics as mean of livelihood. WHAT DOES THAT IMPLY? (next question).

Greek Civilizations (Height of Western Civilization- 500 BC)

Olympia (Olympics) were to Honor of Zeus, Only male, no female, and Every 4 years.

Modern Sporting Bodies

On the "need for physical fitness (1850s) such as Beecher v. Higginson. Both were criticized the conditions on Americans and their physical well-being. Both were convinced antebellum (pre-Civil War) Americans who were in poor health. Also, both were offered different solutions that saw individual and national health as necessarily interrelated.

What we tend to have are (selected) versions of history, some of which have become more... legitimate... than others, that tell a certain version of events.

One example is Winston Churchill. He said "The only history we have is that of the victor." Another example is James Riordan. He said "Just as the dominant class writes history, so that same class writes the story of sport."

Sport and the Development of (American) Character

Organized sports became important because influential people dedicated to achievement and production for the glory of God and country. Sports were socially constructed and defined in ways that were believed to promote this type of character development (Ex. football and baseball vs. soccer which was linked to "foreigners" and immigrants).

Sport as a Disciplinary Institution

Participation in modern regulated and regulating sport forms was encouraged as an antidote to the unruliness and ill-discipline which accompanied traditional game (folk football, etc.) forms. Within this climate to reform, the modern (standardized, regulated, and institutionalized) sport forms developed among the British ruling class. It emerged as the model for the regulation of the new industrial workforce whose lives were now dictated by the rhythms and regimes of the factory (industrial capitalism).

The Race

Possibly the most covered and viewed sporting event therefore... Quote. Outcomes: 1) The result of the race was known in America within 23 minutes of the finish (Wrote R.E. Ellison), Tom Mendenhall mentioned that the first English press 'extra' after the race, sold a second 25,000 copies within forty-five minutes. Within 2 years, the number of rowing clubs in the US had doubled. It ignited a shift from professional rowing to amateur (collegiate) rowing popularity. Rowing becomes the first viable collegiate sport. For the coverage, 80% of the front page of the NY TIMES was devoted to the race.

New History and Sport History

Prior to the 1940s, most scholars ignored the history of sport because most of them considered it a frivolous, anecdotal research interest that added little to the coherent national (political) and academic narratives. Despite the advancements in social and cultural history, the fledging (and perhaps naive) field of the 'history of sport' has only just begun to reflect many of the new paradigmatic developments in the cognate field.

Allen Guttman

Quote. While there may appear to be a extreme difference between contemporary sport in the US (and all the gendered, radicalized, sexualized, corporate, class-based differences that surround it) we need to investigate if there are any continuities that have persisted over time and any discontinuities that delineate the contemporary moment from the past.

The Burgeoning New Middle Class

Rapid growth of corporate capitalism meant an explosive growth in certain profession such as middle management, salespeople, and secretaries. Relaxed concern for self-control and Victorian rigidness. Shortening of working week such as 60 hours in 1890, 47 in 1920. Embraced new forms of expensive behavior such as commercial amusement, spontaneity and consumption. Sport and Consumer culture. This is from economic, political, and social reform to consumerism and commodification.

Section 1: What is Sport History?

Read Ch. 1 of the Reiss book. (1-23)

The Roman Empire

Romans, from roughly 200 BC onwards, based much of their society on the exploitation of slavery. Their economic systems became heavily dependent on the widespread existence of slave labor. Some among them were trained as skilled fighters to perform as gladiators in the arena. In this profession the body became a means of displaying Roman superiority within the vast 'stadia' built to house such spectacles. Celebrations were of sacred rights. Political propaganda. Entertainment/Show.

In sum, the sports we play or watch are?

Rooted in ancient, primitive, and pre-modern practices, structures, ideologies, and disciplines.

Sport and the Leisure Class

Segregation of sport and leisure practices and places. Differing sporting pursuits. Conspicuous displays of time-wasting. Sporting philanthropy.

Sport and Victorian Culture

Set of values, hard work, etc. Victorian values emphasized work over idleness, moral discipline and material aspirations, propriety and self-restraint, and production over play. The clergy enforced restrictions based on the moral value of work and the immorality of play and idleness. Additionally, farm and factory workers had little free time and the city dwellers had little open space (parks and public space did not yet exist). Sport as this time was still considered to encourage immoral behavior (such as drinking and gambling). The emergence of oppositional culture such as blue collar workforce, bachelor, subculture, "masculine" bonding, immigrant population, Southern male. All of this in essence values that subverted Victorian culture.

"Whose knowledge counts?"

Societal transformations and major social and political movements (the civil rights movement, feminism, etc.) also called into question historical knowledge. This led to the questions that were asked in respect to "whose knowledge counts."

Critical Sport History

Sport history is social history that: 1) Explores physical performances (and physical culture more broadly) in and over time, 2) Examines the economic, ideological, and social underpinnings (as well as impact and significance) of these practices in and over time, 3) and Explores patterns in continuity and change in human social activity, structures, values, and social groups.

Why do we study sports history?

Sport marketing provides outlets for pro/colligate sports to expand and grow.*

Sport and Leisure in Fordist America

Sport supported the Protestant ethos, the ideology of liberal republicanism, a competitive but socially beneficial individualism. Sport as a social technology. It prepared individuals as industrial citizens. Sport could be used as a means to promote efficiency and support programs under conditions imposed by the national industrial state and scientific progress. Direct energy in efficient directions, instill democratic, ethos, teach respect for law and constitutionalism, assimilate immigrants, and insure the vigor of the factory workers and the nation.

Sport and the "Civilizing Process"

Suggest a lessening of the amount of expressive (as opposed to instrumental) violence in European society. Ex) The transformation of medieval folk-football into the modern games of soccer and rugby has meant a decrease in the level of physical violence within the game.

Fordism

Synonymous with Henry Ford's automobile manufacturing plants. The "Scientific management" in Ford's car plants. It is centered around the "time and motion studies" of F.W. Taylor which is a method of rationalization of all processes of management. It also increased efficiency/speed/productivity/profit. It is also a routinization of production process. Fordism also has a fragmentation of work task in spatially concentrated cites of production. Organized assembly line. De-skilling of workforce. Mass production.

Sport in Medieval Europe (400-1400)

The "dark ages" were a contradiction period characterized by violence and blood, and at the same time, wholly influenced by religious discourse. The key sporting practices were the folk games played by peasants, tournaments staged for knights and nobles, archery contest, and animal "sports."

Sport and Consumer Culture

The 1920s had changes in the way sport was consumed. The beginnings of sports as "entrainment product" marketing tool.

Sport is both product and producer of society

The Dialectic Thesis which is a Two-Way and Mutually reinforcing relationship between entities. Also, sport is influenced by, and often reflect, the society of which it is a part... vice versa.

"Merry England" and the End of Puritan

The End of Puritan rule and the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. There was a shift in emphasis from piety to hedonism, the theaters and racetracks reopened, and the resurgence of "traditional" English sports and pastimes.

Collegiate Sport

The Union of College Athletes discussed as early as 1905. "the evils of college athletics are the evils of everyday life. Commercialism is a characteristic of American life." (Chairman of Harvard Athletic Committee, 1905). Paying coaches= ?. "The paid Student Athletes." Contests the________ idea of "amateurism."

Roosevelt's Winning of the West

The West is populated with "savage and formidable foes against which the 'English race' maintains its integrity by driving them off or exterminating them, rather than, like the Spanish in other colonial venues, 'sitting down in their midst' and becoming a mixed race."

Christian Ascetics

The asceticism was a devotion to God, practice of martyrdom, virginity, celibacy, poverty, and chastity. There was the physical suffering which is the "My body... should be subjected to heavy labor, beaten frequently with whips, and fed with the poorest food." (Francis of Assisi, 1182-1226).

Sporting practices contribute to a larger social picture and provide insights into key elements of American History that include changing views of?

The body (celebrity, healthy, obese, etc.), Popular Culture (ESPN, celebrity athletes, Ford, Chevy, etc.) Patterns of work and leisure (changing environments), Health Reform (Promotion and NFL 60), Capitalism (1920s), The Spatial configurations of urbanization, suburbanization, and urban regeneration (NY Central Park, Old Yankees Stadium in 1920s), and the civil and women's rights movements (Muhammad Ali, etc.)