The New York Times Book Review - Mary Pilon
The Games is an exhaustively researched account of the modern Olympics…In trying to write a narrative of the entire Olympics, Goldblatt…has taken on a challenge worthy of a marathoner. A book about the scandals alone would risk being biblical in scope. But the greater difficulty is that a thorough Olympic history must also be something of a world history, with tentacles sprawling far beyond the Games themselves. Like a disciplined distance runner, Goldblatt takes an even-paced approach. His is basically an academic survey that spends roughly the same amount of time on each Olympiad. It is based largely on news accounts, academic journals and the official reports of the Games, all presented with the appropriate whiff of skepticism. If Howard Zinn gave us A People's History of the United States, Goldblatt provides a people's history of the Olympics.
Publishers Weekly
★ 08/15/2016
Starting with the vigorous reboot of the modern Olympics by French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin in the 19th century, Goldblatt (The Ball Is Round) chronicles the largest sporting event from the ancient games to the highly organized current spectacles of competition. Goldblatt, who uses peerless research to support his smoothly academic narrative, touches on the history of the first Greek games in 776 BC, the revival of the event in Athens in 1859, and its decline until Coubertin's effort to restart the games. The narrative includes the struggle of women and minorities in the games, and hits its stride when it details the grandeur of Hitler's 1936 games and the boldness of two black athletes, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Goldblatt casts a wide net, covering the rise of TV as a global booster, the Cold War conflicts, the 1972 Munich massacre, the dominance of American swimmer Michael Phelps and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, and the Russian doping scandal. Goldblatt takes a comprehensive, balanced look at the games that rates above its peers.. (July)
Booklist
"[The Games] makes a significant contribution to sports history."
Bustle
"Tak[es] readers through decades of iconic athleticism, complicated global politics, and increasing commercialism—all of which go into making the Olympic games what they are today."
Financial Times - Matthew Engel
"[An] outstanding book. . . . Illuminating, erudite, fair-minded and readable."
Spectator - David Horspool
"[A] bracing corrective… [that] retains space for the extraordinary and inspirational in the arena."
Boston Globe - “Best Books of 2016”
"Goldblatt is a wise, thoughtful, sometimes caustic observer."
Guardian - David Runciman
"[A] bracingly debunking history. . . . Goldblatt writes about [the Olympics] with all his usual intelligence and social insight."
New York Journal of Books - Russell P. Gantos
"A timely and impressively expansive view of arguably the world’s most beloved sporting event.… [Goldblatt] has created the definitive book on the Olympics, which should be on the reading list of anyone with a passion for learning the full story of the Olympic games."
Washington Post - Aram Goudsouzian
"Goldblatt has a particular eye for how the gung-ho competitiveness of Americans shaped international sport."
Huffington Post - Charlie Goffen
"A tour of world history through the lens of the Olympic Games.… Goldblatt’s account of the history of performance-enhancing drugs is particularly striking."
New York Times Book Review - Mary Pilon
"A people’s history of the Olympics. . . . [Goldblatt] has taken on a challenge worthy of a marathoner."
Economist
"Elegant and ambitious."
The Times (UK) - Giles Smith
"[An] excellent, pacy, anecdote-studded history of the modern Games."
Wall Street Journal - Peter Cowie
"Fascinating."
Economist
"Elegant and ambitious."
From the Publisher
Gracefully written and compellingly argued, this is one of the best books of the year and one of the best sports books ever written.” ---Kirkus Starred Review
From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY
Gracefully written and compellingly argued, this is one of the best books of the year and one of the best sports books ever written. —Kirkus Starred Review
Library Journal
★ 07/01/2016
Goldblatt (The Ball Is Round) explores the social and political history of the Olympic Games, from Pierre de Coubertin's neo-Hellenic vision as founder of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the expensive spectacles of the 21st century. The bourgeois, white male origins of the games slowly transformed with the emergence of social movements, postcolonial nations, and communism; impacting medal winners and the composition of the IOC. From the 1972 Munich massacre to Jimmy Carter's failed boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, the games have become a political stage for organizations, nations, and athletes. Winning sometimes comes at the price of censorship, repression, and even death as witnessed in Mexico's 1968 Tlatelolco massacre. Goldblatt does not shy away from past and ongoing controversies: doping, amateurism vs. professionalism, and corruption within the IOC. He is highly critical of the event's rising costs ($51 billion for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi) and their economic strain on host cities and nations, noting that TV and the influence of corporate sponsors have led to increased popularity. VERDICT Highly recommended for all public libraries, this work will appeal to readers interested in the Olympics, the sociology of sport, and modern history.—Chris Wilkes, Tazewell Cty. P.L., VA
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2016-06-12
A tour de force history of the Olympics in romanticized myth and politicized reality.As thousands of athletes and hundreds of thousands of spectators and tourists prepare to descend on Brazil for the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games this summer, sports fans are getting a daily dose of information about potentially toxic waters clogged with human waste and tales of how facilities will not be completed on time. This all takes place against a backdrop of political and economic chaos in Brazil. There is nothing new in this intersection of Olympic planning gone awry and controversial political machinations in host countries. Indeed, as Goldblatt (The Game of Our Lives: The English Premier League and the Making of Modern Britain, 2014, etc.) shows in this fantastic history of the Olympics, far more rare were the instances of smooth planning and a lack of political chaos. The author traces the games back to their Hellenic roots, but he also places them in the context of the myths that emerged around them in the 19th century, as various efforts to revive Olympic-style games picked up pace, finally gaining a foothold with French aristocrat Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a self-mythologizing romantic who laid the foundation for many of the Olympic ideals that in most cases embody little more than invented traditions. Goldblatt, best known for his unparalleled books on soccer, has a fine grip on sports in general and an even better understanding of the politics of sport. He shows the myriad ways in which the attempts by International Olympic Committee power brokers to separate sport from politics were themselves deeply entrenched in conservative political mindsets, and he reveals the barrenness of most demands that participating athletes be pure amateurs. Gracefully written and compellingly argued, this is one of the best books of the year and one of the best sports books ever written.
