Rethinking the Olympics: Cultural Histories of the Modern Games

This anthology of essays, previously published in Olympika: The International Journal of Olympic Studies, addresses key themes in the scholarly study of the Games. Divided into three parts, Part I presents seven articles devoted to Olympic history: the Games’ legacy from antiquity, their modern evolution, and the most controversial Games of the modern era, the Berlin Games of 1936. Part II reviews the persistent problems and crises that confounded and defined the Olympic Games over time. The nine essays in this section focus on a variety of issues such as performance enhancement; the rise of commercialism; enduring controversies in the form of leadership, corruption, and the Cold War; and the politics of hosting the Olympic Games. Part III explores the future of the Modern Olympic Movement from the perspective of the rapidly accelerating globalization.