UMass Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press

Allen Guttmann

Winner of the 2005 Book Award of the North American Society for Sport History

A Selection of the History Book Club

A lively cultural history of world sports from antiquity to the present

From ancient Egyptian archery and medieval Japanese football to contemporary American baseball, every sport has been shaped by—and in turn has helped shape—the culture of which it is part. Yet as Allen Guttmann shows in this far-ranging study, for all their differences sports have followed a similar historical trajectory from traditional to modern forms.

In Sports: The First Five Millennia, Guttmann traces this evolution across continents, cultures, and historical epochs to construct a single comprehensive narrative of the world's sports.

“Allen Guttmann is one of the stars in the history of sports as a serious academic subject. His expert command of the theoretical controversies of his field inspires this fascinating and provocative book. . . . For sports fans, regardless of their political leanings, the great appeal of the book will surely lie in its treasure trove of sports information of all kinds. . . . True lovers of sports will learn from and enjoy the historical panorama presented in this unique book.”

Thomas R. Martin, History Book Club News

“With insight, thoroughness, and the remarkable range of knowledge for which he is well known, Guttmann has provided another excellent work. Of all the leading historians of sport in the world, I know of only one or two who might have come close to accomplishing what he has produced herein—and none who would have done so in such a readable manner.”

Roberta J. Park, Professor Emerita, University of California, Berkeley

Allen Guttmann is “our most distinguished contemporary thinker on the
nature and role of sport in society.”

A. Bartlett Giamatti, late president of Yale University
and Commissioner of Baseball

“Devotes six chapters to ancient through Renaissance sports and 15 to modern, or at least present-day, sports. . . . Highly recommended.”

Choice

Allen Guttmann teaches at Amherst College. Among his many books on the history of sports are From Ritual to Record: The Nature of Modern Sports (1978), Women's Sports: A History (1991), Games and Empires (1994), and The Olympics: A History of the Modern
Games (2002).

Sports / American Studies
464 pp., 45 illus.
$26.95 paper, ISBN 978-1-55849-610-1
May 2007

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