Frank Becker: Raum und Ritual, Körper und Kultur, Politik und Presse: Neue Bücher zur Sportgeschichte

Abstract

Space and Ritual, Body and Culture, Politics and Press. New Books on Sports History

Sports History has become a well established field of historical research. Its theories and methods however, are not yet clearly defined. This essay reviews six recently published titles and examines if and how they address this lacuna. It discusses a variety of approaches from the history of spacing (Dinçkal), to an economically based positivism (Havemann), to the history of organizations (Bahro) and of culture (Behringer); from combining new political history with the body history of anti-Semitism (Schäfer) to a pluralism of methods for historically analyzing sports events (Schiller/Young). Sports history, it argues, needs to include theories and methods of general history, yet at the same time be aware of the specific characteristics of the phenomenon sports.

Besprochen werden u. a.:

Bahro, B.: Der SS-Sport (381); Behringer, W.: Kulturgeschichte des Sports (382); Dinckal, N.: Sportlandschaften (376); Havemann, N.: Samstags um halbvier (378); Schiller, K./Young, C.: The 1972 Munich Olympics and the Making of Modern Germany (386); Schäfer, R.: Militarismus, Nationalismus, Antisemitismus (383)