Fair and Foul: Beyond the Myths and Paradoxes of Sport

by D. Stanley Eitzen

Overview

Americans have long cherished sport for its display of superb skills, heroic efforts, selfless teamwork, uncanny strategies, exuberance, spontaneity, and loyalty. This book moves beyond the myths and media hype to take a closer look at America's love of sport and how it so often comes in conflict with our most basic values. With reverence yet a sharp eye for the the influence of big business, corruption, price gouging, political maneuvering, and media grandstanding, Eitzen portrays famous and lesser known events from professional and college sports, including well known coaches and players, to give us a deeper understanding of what sports means to us and how it affects our everyday world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442212336
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	02/09/2012
Edition description:	5th Edition
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

D. Stanley Eitzen is professor emeritus of sociology at Colorado State University, where he taught for twenty-one years, most recently as John N. Stern Distinguished Professor. He is the author or coauthor of twenty-four books, including three on sport, as well as numerous scholarly articles and chapters in scholarly books. He is a former president of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport and the recipient of that organization’s Distinguished Service Award. Among his other awards, he was selected to be a Sports Ethics Fellow by the Institute for International Sport.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

1 The Duality of Sport 1

2 Sport Unites, Sport Divides 19

3 Names, Logos, Mascots, and Flags: The Contradictory Uses of Sports Symbols 41

4 Sport Is Fair, Sport Is Foul 59

5 Sport Is Healthy, Sport Is Destructive 83

6 The Organization of Children's Play: Peer Centered or Adult Centered? 101

7 Sport Is Expressive, Sport Is Controlled 125

8 Myth: Sports Are Played on a Level Playing Field 145

9 The Contradictions of Big-Time College Sports 165

10 The Path to Success? Myth and Reality 205

11 Professional Sports Franchises: Public Teams, Private Businesses 221

12 The Globalization of Sport 243

13 The Challenge: Changing Sport 261

Index 273

About the Author 291

Editorial Reviews

Taking a sociological approach to the phenomena of professional and academic sports, Eitzen (professor emeritus of sociology, Colorado State U.) examines nine particular contradictions of American sports. Among these are breaking down social barriers yet reinforcing them, the commitment to fair play versus the selfishness of some sports professionals, the commitment of higher education to sport at a cost to good education, and the image of social mobility contrasted with the number of opportunities actually available. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Stan Eitzen has been a pioneer in this field. Like many others, I am in his debt as one of the many he has inspired.

Richard Lapchick

Fair and Foul has exceeded my expectations. Each semester that I use it, there is a group of students that understand the good and the bad of sport and see sport as an intellectual issue. Eitzen’s book is a really different sort of text.

Judith McDonnell

This book presents the various social issues embedded in sports in an accessible way and provides a useful overview for many of the units in my course.

Holly Swyers

Fair and Foul is unique in its approach and provides quality coverage of significant issues impacting the world of sport. It is an insightful resource that students respond well to.

Jason Lee

As a microcosm of society, sport is a social construction and therefore is an arena in which sociological processes can be studied. As my course is an introduction to the field of sport sociology, the goal of the course is to apply a sociological lens to the world of sports and athletics. Fair and Foul helps me attain this goal. It looks at issues and concerns surrounding the sports world. Its’ coverage is vast and accommodates many of the sections of my course.

Keri A. Diggins

As a microcosm of society, sport is a social construction and therefore is an arena in which sociological processes can be studied. As my course is an introduction to the field of sport sociology, the goal of the course is to apply a sociological lens to the world of sports and athletics. Fair and Foul helps me attain this goal. It looks at issues and concerns surrounding the sports world. Its' coverage is vast and accommodates many of the sections of my course.

Fair and Foul has exceeded my expectations. Each semester that I use it, there is a group of students that understand the good and the bad of sport and see sport as an intellectual issue. Eitzen's book is a really different sort of text.

Fair and Foul is unique in its approach and provides quality coverage of significant issues impacting the world of sport. It is an insightful resource that students respond well to.

Stan Eitzen has been a pioneer in this field. Like many others, I am in his debt as one of the many he has inspired.

This book presents the various social issues embedded in sports in an accessible way and provides a useful overview for many of the units in my course.

From the Publisher

Especially well suited for undergraduates in sport sociology or sport studies programs, but will be of interest and use to those interested in the way sport intersects with broader sociological issues. Highly recommended.

November 2009 CHOICE

This book offers a clear and well structured rationale for the need to study sport from a sociological perspective and draws specific attention to the call for a critical examination of the 'dark side' of sports....Fair and Foul offers an excellent, broad introduction to many of the paradoxes evident in American sport and, in so doing, encourages the reader to challenge a number of basic preconceptions held about sport in modern western societies. It goes a long way in encouraging readers/students to think critically about an industry that is often passed off as 'just a game'.

Sage The British Sociological Association

With sweeping scope, and through the use of engaging examples, Fair and Foul simultaneously offers constructive criticism of what's wrong with sport, while showing what's right. Eitzen demonstrates how sport is part of larger systems of inequality, greed, and intolerance, while also suggesting the ways that the positive aspects of sport can be mobilized to become a vibrant part of movements for progressive social changes. A must-read!

Cheng Chen

I think it largely succeeds in accomplishing its primary objective: to provide an overview of social and ethical problems in the American sports world. For anyone wanting to learn about these unsavory aspects of sport, this book is the place to begin. I recommend it for introductory level courses on sport sociology, American society, and American social problems.

Contemporary Sociology - Robert E. Washington

D. Stanley Eitzen continues to demystify the American sport system in this accessible book by combining a critical point of view with 'bottom-up' social activism...The structure of the book means that it can be read either in its entirety or in a more thematic way, and Eitzen skillfully deploys quotes from athletes, coaches, and reporters. The text should be useful for sensitizing students, coaches, athletes to the need for change, and will also appeal to people who are trying to resolve their love-hate relationship with sport.

International Review for the Sociology of Sport - Alexandre Dumas

This book is an outstanding presentation of the 'fair' and the 'foul', 'uniting' and 'dividing', 'healthy' and 'destructive', and 'expressive' and 'controlled' aspects of athletics in the U.S. . . . The chapters on school sport and big-time college athletes were especially compelling. . . . Eitzen [also] dispells the myth of lifelong financial security among professional athletes. This [assertion] is especially poignant for those not familiar with the sociology of sport literature and provides the basis for a classroom discussion of these issues.

Sociology of Sport Journal

Excellent . . . a good read for academics and non-academics alike. This is a solid companion to texts in the sociology of sport.

CHOICE

America's No. 1 addiction is sports, and we don't want a cure. We overlook the trash talk, drug abuse and outrageous salaries of our athletic heroes, because we can't take our eyes off the game. Why? D. Stanley Eitzen explains it all for you.

Mark Kiszla

I think it largely succeeds in accomplishing its primary objective: to provide an overview of social and ethical problems in the American sports world. For anyone wanting to learn about these unsavory aspects of sport, this book is the place to begin. I recommend it for introductory level courses on sport sociology, American society, and American social problems.
— Robert E. Washington

Contemporary Sociology

Excellent . . . a good read for academics and non-academics alike. This is a solid companion to texts in the sociology of sport.

Choice

D. Stanley Eitzen continues to demystify the American sport system in this accessible book by combining a critical point of view with 'bottom-up' social activism...The structure of the book means that it can be read either in its entirety or in a more thematic way, and Eitzen skillfully deploys quotes from athletes, coaches, and reporters. The text should be useful for sensitizing students, coaches, athletes to the need for change, and will also appeal to people who are trying to resolve their love-hate relationship with sport.
— Alexandre Dumas

International Review For The Sociology Of Sport

This book is an outstanding presentation of the 'fair' and the 'foul', 'uniting' and 'dividing', 'healthy' and 'destructive', and 'expressive' and 'controlled' aspects of athletics in the U.S. . . . The chapters on school sport and big-time college athletes were especially compelling. . . . Eitzen [also] dispells the myth of lifelong financial security among professional athletes. This [assertion] is especially poignant for those not familiar with the sociology of sport literature and provides the basis for a classroom discussion of these issues.

Sociology Of Sport Journal