Sport in American Culture

Over 150 years ago, The Nation magazine asserted, “Sport elaborates in its rituals what it means to be human: the play, the risk, the trials, the collective impulse to games, the thrill of physicality, the necessity of strategy; defeat, victory, defeat again, pain, transcendence and, most of all, the certainty that nothing is certain — that everything can change and be changed.” This class explores why sport remains such an integral part of American society. We study high school, collegiate, and professional sports and examine the role played by ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, money and class in sports.