Description
Book SynopsisThis title features unforgettable fans, teams, and athletes. The sixteen original essays in this collection cover influential and famous rivalries from a variety of sports, including track and field, golf, boxing, basketball, tennis, ice skating, baseball, football, soccer, and more. The essays are diverse, but together they illustrate what is common to any rivalry: equally matched opponents that often have decidedly different backgrounds, styles, and personalities. These differences may center on race and culture, political and societal ideologies, personality, geography, or religion - a singular mix intensified by fans and the media. From highly publicized and emotionally charged individual competitions to bitterly fought team contests, ""Rivals"" illuminates what one-of-a-kind opponents and the passion they inspire tell us about ourselves and our society.
Trade Review"Better than any book I know, this dazzling collection dramatizes the rich range of meanings embodied by modern American sport. The focus on great rivalries, and the contrasts in social and cultural values they come to represent, allow the authors to illuminate many of the key factors that have shaped Americans' views of sport - and of themselves - over a century of tumultuous change." - Pamela Grundy, author of Shattering the Glass, The Remarkable History of Women's Basketball "Rivalries are the lifeblood of sport. They're at the heart of what competition is all about. Rivals offers a detailed look at sixteen historic rivalries that shaped the world of sports and still reverberate today." - Thomas Hauser, author of Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times"
