Showing titles in Sociology of Sports

Multiple grand slam tennis champion and entrepreneur, Venus Williams and 46 of her colleagues, friends, and mentors deliver a volume of invaluable wisdom, motivation, and inspiration. Come to Win demonstrates how the principles of competitive athletics translate into business success. With...

A bold and impassioned meditation on injustice in our country that punctures the illusion of a postracial America and reveals it as a place where authoritarianism looms large. Whether the issues are protest, labor, patriotism, or class division, it is clear that professional sports are no longer...

“This collection of Grant’s work is a great testament to not only what he did when he was here, but what he’s still doing to impact others.”—LeBron James The definitive collection of beloved late journalist Grant Wahl’s work—a masterclass in the art of sportswriting After Grant...

Sports fandom isn’t what it used to be. Owners and executives increasingly count on the blind loyalty of their fans and too often act against the team’s best interest. Sports fans are left deliberating not only mismanagement but also political, health, and ethical issues. In Rethinking Fandom: How to Beat the Sports Industrial Complex at Its Own Game, sportswriter and lifelong sports fan Craig Calcaterra outlines endemic problems with what he calls the sports-industrial complex.

How Football Explains America is a fascinating, first-of-its-kind journey through the making of America's most complex, intriguing, and popular game. ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio explores just how crucial football is to understanding the American psyche. Paolantonio tackles varying American themes from Manifest Destiny to “fourth and one” as he goes deep in order to answer the age-old question: Why does America love football so much?

You know when you’re in a Football City. The murals, the billboards, the graffiti, the colours on the bars and pubs. No two football cities are the same. That cross on the club badge, commemorating a 1st century fisherman martyr (Ajax). The ‘cemetery’ of graves dedicated to the club’s...

Acclaimed sports writers Jessica Luther and Kavitha A. Davidson tackle the most pressing issues in sports, why they matter, and how we can do better. For the authors, "sticking to sports" is not an option - not when our taxes are paying for the stadiums, and college athletes aren't getting paid at all. But simply quitting a favorite team won't change corrupt and deplorable practices, and the root causes of many of these problems are endemic in our wider society. 

The long-awaited first book by the award-winning New Yorker staff writer — a memoir that uses his lifelong obsession with the game of hockey as a prism into a sharp, witty, and entertaining exploration of masculinity, of boys and men, and of sons and fathers Over the past two decades, Nick...

From the founder of Black Girl Hockey Club, a collection of deeply insightful and piercing essays shedding light on the history of Black excellence in hockey, the future of Black joy within the sport, and the ways we can all do better when it comes to recognizing—and upheaving—systemic and...

The complete inside story of the shocking steroids scandal that turned the sports world upside down For years, in the shadowy reaches of the world of sports, there were rumors that some of our nation’s greatest athletes were using steroids, human growth hormone, and other drugs to run faster...

The complete inside story of the shocking steroids scandal that turned the sports world upside down For years, in the shadowy reaches of the world of sports, there were rumors that some of our nation’s greatest athletes were using steroids, human growth hormone, and other drugs to run faster...

An entertaining look at the meteoric rise of pickleball and one player’s joyful obsession with the game. Just One More Game is writer Clare Frank’s account of abandoning herself to a sport loved by millions (and hated by plenty of others). As she tries to understand its hold on America and...

NBA journalist Yaron Weitzman lays out the high stakes drama happening inside the Lakers' organization as they try to juggle the warring priorities between LeBron James and the Buss family. When LeBron James signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, it looked like a match made in heaven. Here...

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE A NEW YORKER NOTABLE BOOK OF 2025 ∙ A LITHUB FAVORITE BOOK OF 2025 From the beloved master of Australian letters Helen Garner comes a brand new work of nonfiction, exploring boyhood, football, and the quotidian joys of family life. "Inclusive...

Named one of Financial Times’s Best Books of 2025 The inside story of the crisis within the country’s most classic sport—horseracing—and why money is killing thoroughbreds at the top of their game. Every year, hundreds of horses die on the racetrack. Why? In this deeply reported and...

With rare and unrivaled access, bestselling coauthor of Soccernomics and longtime Financial Times journalist Simon Kuper tells the story of how FC Barcelona became the most successful club in the world—and how that era is now ending FC Barcelona is not just the world’s highest grossing...

An inside look at how women athletes are leading the fight for equality—on and off the field Women’s sports receive a fraction of the airtime allotted for men’s sports, as well as a fraction of the marketing dollars, media coverage, and training resources. For every dollar that the NBA’s...

“Get your head out of your phone and stop doomscrolling. Read Let Us Play instead.”—Jay Onrait, sports anchor “A crucial playbook that athletes and nonathletes alike can use to help make sports an inclusive place for all.”—Meghan Duggan, 3-time Olympian and Olympic gold medalist, USA...

“Narrator Landon Woodson’s clear diction, interested tone, and appropriate inflections enliven the biographical portraits of little-known and well-known athletes and others.” —AudioFile From the author of the bestselling Kobe Bryant biography The Rise comes the legend of the most...

Ballers of the New School is one of the first and best books to come along that effectively explains contemporary athletes and the public response to them. It asks listeners to consider the role of race in the sweaty as well as the sweat-free zones of sport. It challenges the well-worn narrative of sport as America's most significant site of racial progress by scrutinizing the true role of sport in mobilizing and shaping definitions, social relations, and public life.