Type of Credit: Partially Required
Credit(s)
Number of Students
We examine the historical development of sports in the United States from a societal and cultural viewpoint. The course provides opportunity to examine the relationship between sports and nationalism, sports and politics, sports and the economy, sports and society change, and sports and gender. We will emphasize the origins and development of popular American sports.
能力項目說明
Course contents include lecture, secondary readings, primary source readings, and film.
We will examine the gradual development of an American sports culture and the
changing attitudes towards sports. Emphasize will be given to the challenges faced in the creation and development of a uniquely American sports culture. The course will be
especially valuable to students who wish to develop their English-language reading,
speaking, and writing skills while studying the social/cultural history of sport in the United States.
Knowledge of sports is not a prerequisite for the course.
| 教學週次Course Week | 彈性補充教學週次Flexible Supplemental Instruction Week | 彈性補充教學類別Flexible Supplemental Instruction Type |
|---|---|---|
Course outline (Subject to change): Please complete readings before class
1 - September 14 – Introduction to the course, Colonial and Early National Sports Culture; Baseball’s Origins and Golden Age
– Albert G. Spalding, America’s National Game (1911)
2 – September 21– The College Game: The Early Development, Growth, and Crisis of American Football
– “Football Unfit Game says President Eliot,” New York Times (February 3, 1906)
3 – September 28 – A Game for a Purpose: Basketball’s Invention and Early Development
– “Where Basketball was Invented: The History of Basketball”
4 - October 5 – The Depression, War, and Sport
5 – October 12 – The Color Line and American Sport
– Jules Tygiel, “The Negro Leagues,” OAH Magazine of History (1992)
6 – October 19 – Sports Protest: 1968, and Beyond
– David K. Wiggins, “’The year of awakening’: black athletes, racial unrest and the civil rights movement of 1968,” The International Journal of the History of Sport (1992)
– Andrew Maraniss, “The Mexico City Olympics Protest and the Media,” The Undefeated (2018)
7 - October 26 – The NFL at 100: Origins and Rise of America’s Favorite League
– “Colts' 1958 championship win over Giants voted greatest game,” USA Today (October 2019)
– Jeff Pearlman, “When Trump Made the U.S.F.L. Great Again,” New York Times (October 9, 2018)
– Anthony Gulizia and Jeremy Willis, “How the NFL took over America in 100 years,” ESPN (2019)
8 – November 2 – American Soccer: The World’s Game and the US
– Scott Salter, “How Pelé and the New York Cosmos Changed Soccer,” These Football Times (2015)
– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, “Soccer will never be a slam dunk in America,” Time (June 30, 2014)
9 – November 9 – Midterm examination
10 – November 16 – Ali, Boxing, and America
– David Remnick, “The Outsized Life of Muhammad Ali,” New Yorker (2016)
– Lewis A. Erenberg, “Rumble in the Jungle”: Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman in the Age of Global Spectacle,” Journal of Sport History (2012)
11 – November 23 – Documentary: “When We Were Kings” (Leon Gast, 1996)
12 – November 30 – Basketball ABA-Style, the Rise of the NBA
– Michael Murphy, “Remember the ABA,” Houston Chronicle (1996)
– Walter L. LaFeber, “Bittersweet Championship: Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bulls, and International Sports Marketing,” (2009)
– Rick Telander, “Senseless,” Sports Illustrated (May 14, 1990)
13 - December 7 – Fitness: From the “Soft American” to Arnold Schwarzenegger
– John F. Kennedy, “The Soft American,” Sports Illustrated (1960)
– Merrell Noden, “#33 Jim Fixx,” Sports Illustrated (1994)
– Benjamin G. Rader, “The Quest for Self-Sufficiency and the New Strenuosity: Reflections on the Strenuous Life of the 1970s and the 1980s,” Journal of Sport History (1991)
– Richard W. Johnston, “Men and the Myth,” Sports Illustrated (1974)
Essay due in class
14 – December 14 – Women and Modern Sport: From Unequal Standards to the Battle of the Sexes
– Jane Curry and Marjorie Bingham, “American Women and Sport,” OAH Magazine of History (Summer, 1992)
– Curry Kilpatrick, “There she is, Ms. America,” Sports Illustrated (1973)
– Charlie Bevis, “Four Girls in Spring 1974: The First Foot-Soldiers of Female Inclusion in Little League Baseball,” Baseball Research Journal (2022)
15 – December 21 – The US and the Olympics
– John Soares, “The Cold War on Ice,” The Brown Journal of World Affairs (2008)
16 – December 28 – Final Examination
- Attendance and participation, occasional pop quizzes (‘perfect attendance’ 0 or 1 absences) – 10%
- Mid-term Exam November 9 – 30%
- Essay – 30% (3-4 pages, typed, double-spaced. Topic: “A Significant Moment in American Sports.” Due December 14 in class (please do not email your essay). More details to be announced in class. Late essays (10% grade reduction per week – December 29, 10% reduction; January 5, 20% reduction)
- Final – December 28 – 30%
See course syllabus
course Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1GlphkedCBUjvt3X0ApzcoZQveJQi4jDK