How Football Explains America

How Football Explains America PDF Author: Sal Paolantonio
Publisher: Triumph Books
ISBN: 1633192911
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
ESPN's Sal Paolantonio explores just how crucial football is to understanding the American psyche Using some of the most prominent voices in pro sports and cultural and media criticism, "How Football Explains America" is a fascinating, first-of-its-kind journey through the making of America's most complex, intriguing, and popular game. It tackles varying American themes--from Manifest Destiny to "fourth and one"--as it answers the age-old question Why does America love football so much? An unabashedly celebratory explanation of America's love affair with the game and the men who make it possible, this work sheds light on how the pioneers and cowboys helped create a game that resembled their march across the continent. It explores why rugby and soccer don't excite the American male like football does and how the game's rules are continually changing to enhance the dramatic action and create a better narrative. It also investigates the eternal appeal of the heroic quarterback position, the sport's rich military lineage, and how the burgeoning medium of television identified and exploited the NFL's great characters. It is a must read for anyone interested in more fully understanding not only the game but also the nation in which it thrives. Updated throughout and with a new introduction, this edition brings "How Football Explains America" to paperback for the first time.

Love, Zac

Love, Zac PDF Author: Reid Forgrave
Publisher: Algonquin Books
ISBN: 1643752022
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
"The story of a young man from small-town Iowa who decided to take his own life rather than continue his losing battle against the traumatic brain injuries (CTE) he had sustained as a no-holds-barred high school football player, and at the same time a larger story about the hot-button issues that football raises about masculinity and violence, and about what values we want to instill in our kids"--

The War on Football

The War on Football PDF Author: Daniel J. Flynn
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1621571823
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
From concussion doctors pushing “science” that benefits their hidden business interests to lawyers clamoring for billion-dollar settlements in scam litigation, America’s game has become so big that everybody wants a cut. And those chasing the dollars show themselves more than willing to trash a great sport in hot pursuit of a buck. Everything they say about football is wrong. Football players don’t commit suicide at elevated levels, die younger than their peers, or suffer disproportionately from heart disease. In fact, professional players live longer, healthier lives than American men in general. More than that, football is America’s most popular sport. It brings us together. It is, and has been, a rite of passage for millions of American boys. But fear over concussions and other injuries could put football on ice. School districts are already considering doing away with football as too dangerous. Parents who used to see football as character-building now worry that it may be mind-destroying. Even the president has jumped on the pile by fretting that he might prevent a son from playing if he had one. But as author Daniel J. Flynn reports, football is actually safer than skateboarding, bicycling, or skiing. And in a nation facing an obesity crisis, a little extra running, jumping, and tackling could do us all good. Detailing incontrovertible fact after incontrovertible fact, The War on Football: Saving America’s Game rescues reality from the hype—and in doing so may just ensure that football remains America’s game.

Hey Rube

Hey Rube PDF Author: Hunter S. Thompson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 9780684873190
Category : Newspapers
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
Sports, politics, and sex collide in Hunter S. Thompson s wildly popular ESPN.com columns. From the author of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and father of Gonzo journalism comes "Hey Rube." Insightful, incendiary, outrageously brilliant, such was the man who galvanized American journalism with his radical ideas and gonzo tactics. For over half a century, Hunter S. Thompson devastated his readers with his acerbic wit and uncanny grasp of politics and history. His reign as "The Unabomber of contemporary letters" ("Time") is more legendary than ever with "Hey Rube." Fear, greed, and action abound in this hilarious, thought-provoking compilation as Thompson doles out searing indictments and uproarious rants while providing commentary on politics, sex, and sports at times all in the same column. With an enlightening foreword by ESPN executive editor John Walsh, critics' favorites, and never-before-published columns, "Hey Rube" follows Thompson through the beginning of the new century, revealing his queasiness over the 2000 election ("rigged and fixed from the start"); his take on professional sports (to improve Major League Baseball "eliminate the pitcher"); and his myriad controversial opinions and brutally honest observations on issues plaguing America including the Bush administration and the inequities within the American judicial system. "Hey Rube" gives us a lasting look at the gonzo journalist in his most organic form unbridled, astute, and irreverent."

War Isn't the Only Hell

War Isn't the Only Hell PDF Author: Keith Gandal
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421425114
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
A vigorous reappraisal of American literature inspired by the First World War. American World War I literature has long been interpreted as an alienated outcry against modern warfare and government propaganda. This prevailing reading ignores the US army’s unprecedented attempt during World War I to assign men—except, notoriously, African Americans—to positions and ranks based on merit. And it misses the fact that the culture granted masculinity only to combatants, while the noncombatant majority of doughboys experienced a different alienation: that of shame. Drawing on military archives, current research by social-military historians, and his own readings of thirteen major writers, Keith Gandal seeks to put American literature written after the Great War in its proper context—as a response to the shocks of war and meritocracy. The supposedly antiwar texts of noncombatant Lost Generation authors Dos Passos, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Cummings, and Faulkner addressed—often in coded ways—the noncombatant failure to measure up. Gandal also examines combat-soldier writers William March, Thomas Boyd, Laurence Stallings, and Hervey Allen. Their works are considered straight-forward antiwar narratives, but they are in addition shaped by experiences of meritocratic recognition, especially meaningful for socially disadvantaged men. Gandal furthermore contextualizes the sole World War I novel by an African American veteran, Victor Daly, revealing a complex experience of both army discrimination and empowerment among the French. Finally, Gandal explores three women writers—Katherine Anne Porter, Willa Cather, and Ellen La Motte—who saw the war create frontline opportunities for women while allowing them to be arbiters of masculinity at home. Ultimately, War Isn’t the Only Hell shows how American World War I literature registered the profound ways in which new military practices and a foreign war unsettled traditional American hierarchies of class, ethnicity, gender, and even race.

What We Think About When We Think About Soccer

What We Think About When We Think About Soccer PDF Author: Simon Critchley
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525504605
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
You play soccer. You watch soccer. You live soccer You breathe soccer. But do you think about soccer? Soccer is the world’s most popular sport, inspiring the absolute devotion of countless fans around the globe. But what is it about soccer that makes it so compelling to watch, discuss, and think about? Is it what it says about class, race, or gender? Is it our national, regional, or tribal identities? Simon Critchley thinks it’s all of these and more. In his new book, he explains what soccer can tell us about each, and how each informs the way we interpret the game, all while building a new system of aesthetics, or even poetics, that we can use to watch the beautiful game. Critchley has made a career out of bringing philosophy to the people through popular subjects, and in What We Think About When We Think About Soccer he uses his considerable philosophical acumen to examine the sport that has captured the hearts and minds of millions.

Letters from a War Hero

Letters from a War Hero PDF Author: Robert C. Linnell
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595343252
Category : Sailors
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
I have to laugh at the bunk they spread all over the newspapers. Every time somebody hears a rumor or gets an idea he flashes it out on the front page in huge black print. The papers are full of speculation as to what will happen where and when. It sounds to me as though the home front thought the surrender of Italy practically ended the war. We received the news over the radio while underway for the invasion. We took it with little excitement. We had been expecting it any day and also knew that the fighting would still be plenty tough. I guess the people at home thought that would mean a victory much through Italy. I would say that it was nearer another Dunkirk. The Germans still have lots of fight left in them, and the war still has lots of months left in it. --an excerpt of a letter from Ensign R.C. Linnell to his parents, October 3, 1943 This endearing collection of letters written before, during, and after some of most intense invasions of World War II provides insight into a bygone era. Letters from a War Hero is a priceless account of American history entwined with a beautiful love story.

Brian Miller: Dragon-Stars at War

Brian Miller: Dragon-Stars at War PDF Author: J. Michael Brower
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1663213062
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
Flummoxed with a sparring match among the top two saurians, Brian Miller doesn’t know where to turn. Joan of Arc must save the day, and she innocently suggests a football game before the inevitable clash. Every reptilian is ‘more than game’ and a brutal match is fought in Portland, Oregon. It is a wild ride and you won’t believe the outcome! Brian Miller worms his way into decisions about the ‘new’ ninth planet and has an incredible dragon-star-ride with Clareina. She deploys the Black World swords to seek out lightning events, which are spectacular. Meanwhile, just after the football game, Larry King does an interview with the dragon-stars. Sitting Sphinx-style on Persian rugs, Littorian is charmed by these carpets, suggesting just before they leave the Earth, Brian should make arrangements to “go East” just for a look-see. Join us again for all of these dragon-star adventures! Find more at www.stardragons.org

The Great Starvation Experiment

The Great Starvation Experiment PDF Author: Todd Tucker
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 0816651612
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Reprint. Originally published: New York: Free Press, c2006.

War Isn't Hell, It's Entertainment

War Isn't Hell, It's Entertainment PDF Author: Rikke Schubart
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786435585
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Real war is a cruel theater of death, yet it is also an exciting narrative exploited for national, political and commercial purposes and turned into numerous films, television shows, computer games, news stories and reenactment plays. These essays examine the relationship between war, visual media and entertainment from a number of academic perspectives. Key topics include how war is used as an imaginary site to stage dramas; how boundaries between war, media, and entertainment dissolve as new media alters the formal qualities of representation; how entertainment is used to engage audiences; and what effect products of war and entertainment have on consumers of popular culture.

When Football Went to War

When Football Went to War PDF Author: Todd Anton
Publisher: Triumph Books
ISBN: 1623683092
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
More than any other sport, professional football contributed fighting men to the battles of World War II, and the 22 or so players or former players that lost their lives are among the riveting stories told in this tribute to football's war heroes that spans many decades and military conflicts. The National Football League counts three Congressional Medal of Honor recipients among its honors, along with numerous Silver Stars, Distinguished Flying Crosses, and Purple Hearts. When Football Went to War offers a ground-breaking look at football—college and professional football alike—and many of the wartime heroes who came off the field of play to fight for their country. Detailed biographies of those who gave their lives are supplemented by many other stories of wartime heroism, from World War I through to Pat Tillman's tragic death in the Global War on Terrorism. Football has become the most popular sport in America and this heartfelt book honors the many sacrifices of NFL athletes over the years in service of their country.