The definitive sports and social history of
the modern Olympic Games--by one of the
most celebrated sportswriters of our time.Renowned sportswriter David Goldblatt has been hailed by the Wall Street
Journal for writing "with the expansive eye of a social and cultural critic"
In The Games Goldblatt delivers a magisterial history of the biggest sporting
event of them all: the Olympics. He tells the epic story of the Games from their
reinvention in Athens in 1896 to the present day, chronicling classic moments
of sporting achievement from Jesse Owens to Nadia Comăneci, the Miracle
on Ice to Usain Bolt. He goes beyond the medal counts to explore how international
conflicts have played out at the Olympics, including the role of the
Games in Fascist Germany and Italy, the Cold War, and the struggles of the
postcolonial world for recognition. He also tells the extraordinary story of how
women fought to be included on equal terms, how the Paralympics started in
the wake of World War II, and how the Olympics reflect changing attitudes to
race and ethnicity.