Description: Keys offers the first major study of the political and cultural ramifications of international sports competitions in the 1930s. Focusing on the U.S., Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union, she examines the transformation of events like the Olympics and the World Cup from small-scale events to the expensive, political, global extravaganzas of today.
Brief description: Barbara J. Keys is Associate Professor of U.S. and International History at the University of Melbourne.
Review Quotes: What an original and exciting book! Other scholars have treated sport seriously, but this fascinating new study elevates our understanding of the place of international sport to a level of importance far higher than the purely symbolic plane to which it is typically consigned. Besides telling the fascinating story of internationalism in sport in the 1930s, Barbara Keys also provides fresh insights into the functioning of modern international relations in general. As she makes wonderfully clear, sport is a striking example of the autonomous power exerted by the non-political aspects of global society. No doubt about it: this work is destined to become a model for other scholars in the burgeoning new field of international history.--Frank Ninkovich, St. John's University