In this long-awaited book from the rising  superstar of sportswriting, whose blog “The Edge of Sports” is read each week by thousands of  people across the country, Dave Zirin offers a  riotously entertaining chronicle of  larger-than-life sporting characters and  dramatic contests and what amounts to an  alternative history of the United States as seen through the games its people played. Through  Zirin’s eyes, sports are never mere games, but a reflection of—and spur toward—the political  conflicts that shape American society.  Half a century before Jackie Robinson was  born, the black ballplayer Moses Fleetwood  Walker brandished a revolver to keep racist fans at bay, then took his regular place in the  lineup. In the midst of the Depression, when  almost no black athletes were allowed on the  U.S. Olympic team, athletes held a Counter  Olympics where a third of the participants were  African American.  A People’s  History of Sports in the United States is  replete with surprises for seasoned sports fans, while anyone interested in history will be amazed by the connections Zirin draws between politics  and pop flies. As Jeff Chang, author of  Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, puts it, “After  you read him, you’ll never see sports the same  way again.”

A people's history of sport in the United States : from bull-baiting to Barry Bonds - 250 years of politics, protest, the people and play PDF

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