Patriotic Games: Sporting Tradition in the American Imagination, 1876-1926

Choice “Outstanding Academic Book” (1998)    

“Nationalism and amateurism. While countless scholars have written on one or the other of these two important concepts, S.W. Pope has undertaken to explore the relationship between them. His subtle analysis on this relationship is but one of many highlights in this wonderfully insightful and multi-faceted book.” -Allen Guttmann, Amherst College

“Pope has done a masterful job of combining his reading from secondary sources with his own original research to give us a definitive account of the time when sports and national identity came to be connected. The clarity and specificity of language made this book a pleasure to read. Those in the development of American sports should read this book, as should anyone curious about how the rhetoric of nationalism became dependent upon its connection to the rhetoric of athletics.” -<i>The International Journal of the History of Sport</i>

“The strength of the text lies in the rich contextual detail that Pope has assembled to illustrate the fusion of national ideology and sport in the American context. This is especially the case when he draws upon the primary sources . . . The result is a series of carefully rendered studies tracing ideological contestation in various spheres of sporting discourse.” -<i>International Review of the Sociology of Sport</i>

“Patriotic Games is gracefully written and explores more fully and satisfactorily than any previous book the relationship between nationalism and American sports in the years between the American centennial in 1876 and the sesquicentennial in 1926.”-<i>Journal of American History</i>

“The documentation of sources is exceptionally well done and exhaustively detailed. This thoroughly readable work is highly recommended for upper-division undergraduates through faculty collections.” -Choice

“[<i>Patriotic Games</i>] challenges sport historians to look more closely at the ways in which sports rhetoric weaves national, social, and personal agendas into  tightly knit fabric. In so doing, it offers a provocative perspective on the ideological function of sports that will help to advance this growin area of sports scholarship.”-Journal of Sport History