SPORTS & AMERICAN SOCIETY

Catalog description

This course follows the development of sports in America from the colonial times to the recent past; over the course of the semester we will examine the transition from folk games to the modern age of spectators. Important to this transformation will be changes in society, technology and business. We will look at the changing definition and purpose of sport, the symbolism of sport, the way in which sport can unify and divide people, and the interaction between sport as a part of culture and society and its relationship to national historical trends.