King Football: Sport and Spectacle in the Golden Age of Radio and Newsreels, Movies and Magazines, the Weekly and the Daily Press
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Book Overview
This landmark work explores the vibrant world of football from the 1920s through the 1950s, a period in which the game became deeply embedded in American life. Though millions experienced the thrills of college and professional football firsthand during these years, many more encountered the game through their daily newspapers or the weekly Saturday Evening Post, on radio broadcasts, and in the newsreels and feature films shown at their local movie theaters. Asking what football meant to these millions who followed it either casually or passionately, Michael Oriard reconstructs a media-created world of football and explores its deep entanglements with a modernizing American society.
Football, claims Oriard, served as an agent of "Americanization" for immigrant groups but resisted attempts at true integration and racial equality, while anxieties over the domestication and affluence of middle-class American life helped pave the way for the sport's rise in popularity during the Cold War. Underlying these threads is the story of how the print and broadcast media, in ways specific to each medium, were powerful forces in constructing the football culture we know today.
Football, claims Oriard, served as an agent of "Americanization" for immigrant groups but resisted attempts at true integration and racial equality, while anxieties over the domestication and affluence of middle-class American life helped pave the way for the sport's rise in popularity during the Cold War. Underlying these threads is the story of how the print and broadcast media, in ways specific to each medium, were powerful forces in constructing the football culture we know today.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0807826502
ISBN13:9780807826508
Release Date:November 2001
Publisher:University of North Carolina Press
Length:512 Pages
Weight:2.07 lbs.
Dimensions:1.0" x 6.1" x 9.3"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Reflections on the rise of America's Game
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 18 years ago
This is really a fascinating and well written book. Oriard looks at every angle in deconstructing how and why football became America's Game by 1960. Great illustrations accompany very readable text. It's a social history as much as a football history, but it speaks volumes about the sporting heritage of America and how race, class, and ethnicity are reflected in the game - and indeed how the game has forced us to confront some of the less savory facets of American society, particularly race. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of football and American popular culture.
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