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Allen Guttmann

Born: 1932 Chicago
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois:

Biography: Allen Guttman is a Professor of English and American Studies at Amhurst College.


Awards:

Primary Literary Genre(s): History

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Allen Guttmann on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=allen+guttmann


Selected Titles

A whole new ball game :
ISBN: 0807842206 OCLC: 16901077

University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill : ©1988.

From ritual to record :
ISBN: 0231133413 OCLC: 54503875

Examines the relationship between sports and society, including the degree to which modern sport expresses the characteristics of modern society, such as secularism, equality, specialization, rationalization, and bureaucracy.

Games and empires :
ISBN: 0231100434 OCLC: 30036883

Columbia University Press, New York : [1994]

In his latest work, Allen Guttmann explores the ways in which such popular modern sports as soccer, baseball, and basketball have spread from their Western roots to all corners of the globe. He discusses how less powerful peoples go on to adapt these sports into their own regional variants. In addition, Buttmann points out the possibility and reality of resistance to the diffusion of modern Western sports. Games and Empires combines geographical range and historical insight to trace the ways in which key sports have affected cultural development in various countries from the nineteenth century to the present. In the process, Guttmann offers a perspective on the diffusion of sports within various societies, discussing the attempts of women to participate in male-dominated sports and the dissemination of sports from one social class to another. Games and Empires covers the introduction of cricket into societies as diverse as the United States and India; the arrival of soccer football in a number of European, Latin American, and African nations; the export of baseball to Japan and the Caribbean; the spread of basketball to the Far East and Western Europe; the global expansion of the Olympics; and the recent invasion by American sports in areas where British sports have long been dominant.--Jacket.

Sport spectators
ISBN: 9780231517096 OCLC: 814018699

Columbia University Press, New York : 1986.

In his previous books Allen Guttmann has provided incisive perspectives on Avery Brundage's role in the Olympic movement and on the nature of modern sports. Now, in his latest book, the accomplished historian of sport turns his attention from the playing field to the grandstand. Sports Spectators, the first historical study of the subject from antiquity to today, is at once erudite and entertaining; comprehensive and succint. Guttmann first examines the history of sports spectators, starting with Ancient Greece and Rome. He then moves on to the Renaissance and traces three early sp.

Sports :
ISBN: 1558494707 OCLC: 55672148

University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, Mass. : ©2004.

From ancient Egyptian archery and medieval Japanese football to contemporary American baseball, sports have been shaped by - and in turn have helped shape - the culture of which it is part. This work traces this evolution across continents, cultures, and historical epochs to construct a single comprehensive narrative of the world's sports.

The erotic in sports /
ISBN: 0231105568 OCLC: 34544908

Columbia University Press, New York : ©1996.

In The Erotic in Sports, Allen Guttmann illuminates a topic commonly hidden in the shadows, drawing upon literature, art, modern mass media, and traditional historical sources to describe and comment upon its importance across nearly three millennia of Western history. Investigating aesthetic ideals that romanticize the lithe, agile fencer at one historical moment and the massively muscled football player at another, surveying ancient legends and products of pop culture, Guttmann's groundbreaking work uncovers a vast array of evidence that cultures across the ages have celebrated, glorified, censured, and denied the erotic aspects of sports.

  The Jewish writer in America;
ISBN: 0195014472 OCLC: 176471

Oxford University Press, New York, 1971.

Bibliography: p. 244-246.

The Olympics, a history of the modern games
ISBN: 0252017013 OCLC: 24379324

University of Illinois Press, Urbana [Ill.] : ©1992.

Glories and fiascos, triumphs and tragedies, records and near misses--all are included in this vivid history of the modern Olympics. Using as a backdrop the athletic events that draw television audiences in the billions, Allen Guttmann has written an interpretive social history of the games. What did the founders of the Olympic Games intend them to mean? And what have they, in the course of a century of tumultuous change, become? Guttmann probes the political, economic, social, and even religious significance of the games, presenting the most complete and readable account to date. In the broadest sense, Guttmann argues, politics has always been a part of the Olympics, not an occasional intruder whose presence may take the form of a boycott, protest, or act of terrorism. The book includes lively accounts of individual competitions. An early marathon through the streets of Paris, for example, brought complaints from the U.S. team that the course had been designed to allow French contestants to take shortcuts. Guttmann also provides insight into the behind-the-scenes maneuvering involved in site selection, as well as little-known facts about the general history of the games and about longtime IOC leader Avery Brundage.

The Olympics, a history of the modern games /
ISBN: 0252070461 OCLC: 47176993

University of Illinois Press, Urbana : ©2002.

Traces the history of the modern Olympics from 1896 to 2000, contrasting the ideal of the game with the often politicized reality.

  Women's sports :
ISBN: 0231069561 OCLC: 22956414

Columbia University Press, New York : ©1991.

The subject is rife with social and cultural implications which Guttmann explores as he traces the development of women's sports from antiquity to the present, including the evolution and the revolution in the 20th century and contemporary controversies.

 

 

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