Rutgers University Press SportsWorld: An American Dreamland

Tough and witty, SportsWorld is a well-known commentator’s overview of the most significant form of mass culture in America―sports. It’s a sweaty Oz that has grown in a century from a crucible for character to a complex of capitalism, a place where young people can find both self-fulfillment and cruel exploitation, where families can huddle in a sanctuary of entertainment and be force fed values and where cities and countries can be pillaged by greedy team owners and their paid-for politicians. But this book is not just a screed, it’s a guided visit with such heroes of sports as Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Joe Namath, who the author knew well, and with some he met in passing, like Richard Nixon, who seemed never to have gotten over missing the cut in college varsity football, a major mark of manhood. We see how SportsWorld sensibilities help elect our politicians, judge our children, fight our wars, and oppress our minorities. And now featuring a new introduction by the author, SportsWorld is a book that will provide the foundation for understanding today’s world of sports and the time of Trump.  In the America of 2017―where the SuperBowl is worth billions, athletes are penalized or forced out of sports for political and anti-racist activism, and Title IX is constantly questioned and undermined―Robert Lipsyte’s 1975 critique remains startlingly and intensely relevant. Review "What We Can Learn From Sports Fandom's Moral Drift," by Robert Lipsyte-- "The Nation""A very readable book!"-- "Idrottsforum""An incisive, intelligent, beautifully written book." -- "Newsday""I'd like to believe that all of us, even overserved, media-saturated fans, are more willing to follow Lipsyte's example in believing that 'sports matters event if there is something the matter with sports.'"-- "Bookforum""It is in that other thing, the simple and wonderful act of playing, that Lipsyte, despite his withering analysis of the country's sports obsession, finds hope: 'Yet for all the cynicism and oppression and betrayal, the rhythms of sport, the sensations, and the emotions, are often the most intense and pleasurable ever experienced.'"-- "New Yorker""Robert Lipsyte is one of the most significant sports journalists of my lifetime. SportsWorld features the insight, prescience, social conscience, and willingness to break from the pack that set Lipsyte apart."--Bob Costas"Tomgram: Robert Lipsyte, Trump's War on Black Jocks" by Robert Lipsyte, mention of book-- "TomDispatch""Bob Lipsyte's underappreciated masterpiece. Ahead of its time in every way. Nothing less than the most important sports book ever written."--Dave Zirin "Sports Editor, The Nation""Mr. Lipsyte is a brilliant writer. He can turn a phrase as effortlessly as Earl the Pearl spinning, faking left, then right, to sink a fallaway jumper. He is as erudite in his references . . . as Bill Bradley. He is a phrase maker and a wit."--Anatole Broyard "The New York Times""Robert Lipsyte is our best guide to the dramatic, wondrous, and ultimately all-absorbing culture of American sports. Brilliantly written and sharply articulated, this classic text is an insightful and important journey into the heart of American sports and by extension, American society."--Gay Talese "bestselling author and journalist""You will never look at a sports event in quite the same way again." --Paul D. Zimmerman "Newsweek" About the Author Robert Lipsyte is an award-winning sportswriter for The New York Times and was the Emmy-winning host of the public affairs show The Eleventh Hour. He is the author of a number of acclaimed novels for young adults, and is the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award honoring his lifetime contribution in that genre.