Double Fault! Race and Gender in Modern Sports History

Catalog description

From 1936 Berlin Olympics to infamous East German swimmers of the Cold War to 1998 French soccer team, sport culture has consistently helped define overall societal values. We will examine how early modern societies defined the ideal sporting participant, and how shifts over time included and excluded various groups. These shifts, including the promotion of masculinity through duels, the fears of women’s emancipation via cycling, and the exclusion of Jews from competition, were based on perceived national needs. Through the study of sports, we will study who we have been as a community—as well as who we aspire to be.