Main description:

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.

Contents:

Introduction.- Section 1: Bodily Damage and Pre- and Early Industrial Sport, Chapter 1 Honor, Injury, and Death in the Athletics of the Ancient World, Michael B. Poliakof.- Chapter 2. 'Beastly fury and extreme violence': pain, injury and death in pre-industrial British and Irish football, Ariel Hessayon.- Chapter 3 Violence, injury and the politics of the evolving football codes, Liam O'Callaghan.- Chapter 4 "Though he was evidently suffering great pain, he bore it well:" Early Twentieth Century Attitudes Toward Injury in North American Combat Sports, Nathan Hatton.- Section 2 The NFL: Politics, Injury and American National Identity, Chapter 5 Inflaming the Civic Temper: Head Injury and Violence Debates in Early U.S. American Football, Emily Harrison.- Chapter 6 A Problem That Cries Out For Standards: Football Helmets, Conceptions of Risk, and the National Commission on Product Safety, 1967-1970, Kathleen Bachynski.- Chapter 7 'Lights Out: The National Football League, Concussion Research, and the Suppression of Evidence', Lucia Trimbur.- Chapter 8 Injuries as Usual: The Football Problem(s) in American Society, Peter Benson and Adam Rugg.- Section 3 Sporting Females and the Politics of Injury.- Chapter 9 Injury at the Extreme: Alison Hargreaves, mountaineering and motherhood, Carol Osborne.- Chapter 10 Gendered Bodies, Gendered Injuries, Kath Woodward.- Chapter 11 The Not So Glamorous World of Women's Wrestling, Karen Corteen.- Section 4 Sport as Transport: Horse, Cycle and Motor Racing and the Politics of Safety.- Chapter 12 Fallers: Politics, Injury and Death in Horseracing, Patrick Sharman.- Chapter 13 "Dishing out the pain" in professional cycling, Peter Bramham.- Chapter 14. Flapping His Elbows and Making Chicken Noises at Me: The Politics of Driver and Spectator Safety in Formula One Motor Racing, Stephen Wagg.- Section 5: Sport, Injury and the Culture of Late Capitalism.- Chapter 15 McDonaldization and Sporting Bodies: The Irrationality of Sport Rationalization, David Andrews.- Chapter 16 The 'Concussion Crisis' and the Gift Economy: Athletes' Brain Donation and the Political Economy of Dissection, Sean Brayton and Michelle Helstein.- Chapter 17 The Collegiate Arms Race: Aspiration, Injury and the Inner City Black Male in US Basketball, Scott Brooks.- Chapter 18 Consenting to Violence: The Politics of Sports Injury, Jill Weinberg.- Chapter 19 Forging Elite Fitness? Crossfit, Injury and the Politics of Risk, Shaun Edmonds.- Chapter 20 Medical Care as Self-Defence: Mixed Martial Arts, Sports Medics and the Politics of Injury, Alex Channon, Christopher R. Matthews and Mathew Hillier.- Chapter 21, Colour Blind and Ready to Play: Sport, Labour, and Whiteness in The Hunger Games Film Series, Nicholas Rickards.- Section 6: Sport and Injury - Case Studies, Chapter 22 Injury and Olympic Politics, 1896-1988 , Helen Jefferson Lenskyj and Lee Hill.- Chapter 23 'Fits and starts': Re-examining the Mystery of Brazilian Footballer Ronaldo and the 1998 World Cup Final, John Sugden.- Chapter 24 The Cricket Pitch as 'Unsafe Workplace': Sports Culture and the Death of Phillip Hughes, David Rowe.- Chapter 25 Muhammad Ali, Sport Celebrity and Perceptions of Parkinson's Disease, Nicole Eugene and Jenny Nelson.- Chapter 26 Contextualizing Jordan McNair: Injurious Practices, Disposable Black Bodies, and Regressive Nationalism, Physical Cultural Studies Research Group, University of Maryland.- Chapter 27 'Snipers Stop Play' The Israeli Defence Force and the Shooting of Palestinian Footballers, Jon Dart.- Section 7: Sport, Harm and the Politics of Wellbeing, Chapter 28 Sport and Abuse of the Young, Melanie Lang.- Chapter 29 Side-lined: Boys, Sport, and Depression, Michael Atkinson and Kristina Smith.- Chapter 30 Deny, Conceal, Confuse, Conflate: Responses to Safety Suggestions in Schools' Rugby, Allyson Pollock and Graham Kirkwood.- Conclusion