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This book looks historically at the harm that has been inflicted in the practice of sport and at some of the issues, debates and controversies that have arisen as a result. Written by experts in history, sociology, sport journalism and public health, the book considers sport and injury in relation to matters of social class; gender; ethnicity and race; sexuality; political ideology and national identity; health and wellbeing; childhood; animal rights; and popular culture. These matters are, in turn, variously related to a range of sports, including ancient, pre- and early industrial sports; American football; boxing; wrestling and other combat sports; mountaineering; horseracing; cycling; motor racing; rugby football; cricket; association football; baseball; basketball; Crossfit; ice hockey; Olympic sports; Mixed Martial Arts; and sport in an imagined dystopian future.
List of contents
Introduction.- Part 1 Bodily Damage and Pre- and Early Industrial Sport.- 1 The Perils of Rewarding Toughness: Honor, Injury, and Death in the Athletics of the Ancient World.- 2 'Beastly furie, and exstreme violence': pain, injury and death resulting from football and other ball games played in the British Isles before the Reformation.- 3 Violence, injury, and the politics of the evolving football codes.- 4 "Though he was evidently suffering great pain, he bore it well:" Public Discourse on Benefits, Risk, and Injury in North American Wrestling, 1880 to 1914.- Part 2 The NFL: Politics, Injury and American National Identity'.- 5 Inflaming the Civic Temper: Progress, Violence, and Concussion in Early American Football.- 6 A Problem That Cries Out For Standards: Football Helmets, Conceptions of Risk, and the National Commission on Product Safety, 1961-1970.- 7 Lights Out: Concussion Research, the National Football League, and Employer Duty of Care.- 8 Race and Injury in American Football.- Part 3 Sporting Females, Sexuality and the Politics of Injury.- 9 Injury at the Extreme: Alison Hargreaves, Mountaineering and Motherhood.- 10 Gendered Bodies, Gendered Injuries.- 11 The Not So Glamorous World of Women's Wrestling.- 12 Pride, Prejudice and Death: The Emile Griffiths Story.- Part 4 Sport as Transport: Horse, Cycle and Motor Racing and the Politics of Safety.- 13 Runners, Riders and Risk: Safety Issues in the History of Horseracing.- 14 "Dishing out the pain" in professional cycling.- 15 It Was Ironic That He Should Die in Bed: Injury, Death and the Politics of Safety in the History of Motor Racing.- Part 5 Sport, Injury and the Culture of Late Capitalism.- 16 The Death of Jordan McNair: The Inevitability of the Avoidable Life-Threatening Injury.- 17 From Body Snatchers to Brain Banks: The Cadaver as Commodity and the Sports-Concussion "Crisis".- 18 On the Front Lines: Black Boys and Injury in Basketball.- 19 All Power to Your Elbow? Injury in US Baseball and the Politics of 'Tommy John Surgery'.- 20 Is Injury "On Brand"? Examining the Contexts of the CrossFit Injury Connection.- 21 'This must be done right, so we don't lose the income': Medical care and commercial imperatives in mixed martial arts.- 22 Vanguards on The Starting Line: Race, Work, and Dissent in Sport Dystopian films from Rollerball to The Hunger Games.- Part 6: Sport and Injury - Case Studies.- 23 Injury and Olympics Politics, 1896-1988.- 24 Fits and Starts: Re-examining the Mystery of Brazil's Ronaldo and the Rumours Swirling Around his Controversial Role in the World Cup final of 1998.- 25 The Cricket Pitch as 'Unsafe Workplace': Sports Culture and the Death of Phillip Hughes.- 26 Muhammad Ali, Sport Celebrity and Perceptions of Parkinson's Disease.- 27 'Snipers Stop Play': The Israeli Defence Force and the Shooting of Palestinian Footballers.- Part 7 Sport, Harm and the Politics of Wellbeing.- 28 The politics of safeguarding and protecting children in sport in England.- 29 Sidelined: Boys, Sport, and Depression.- 30 Injuries in Schools' Rugby: Occasional Niggles and Scrapes?.
About the author
Stephen Wagg retired as Professor of Sport and Society at Leeds Beckett University in the UK in 2019. He is currently an Honorary Fellow in the International Centre for Sport History and Culture at de Montfort University, Leicester, and Visiting Professor at Newcastle University, both in the UK.
Allyson M. Pollock is Clinical Professor of Public Health in the Population Health Sciences Institute at Newcastle University in the UK and Co-Director Newcastle University Centre of Excellence in Regulatory Science.
Summary
This book looks historically at the harm that has been inflicted in the practice of sport and at some of the issues, debates and controversies that have arisen as a result. Written by experts in history, sociology, sport journalism and public health, the book considers sport and injury in relation to matters of social class; gender; ethnicity and race; sexuality; political ideology and national identity; health and wellbeing; childhood; animal rights; and popular culture. These matters are, in turn, variously related to a range of sports, including ancient, pre- and early industrial sports; American football; boxing; wrestling and other combat sports; mountaineering; horseracing; cycling; motor racing; rugby football; cricket; association football; baseball; basketball; Crossfit; ice hockey; Olympic sports; Mixed Martial Arts; and sport in an imagined dystopian future.
