University of Texas Press, 1984 eISBN: 978-0-292-76886-4 | Paper: 978-0-292-77588-6 Library of Congress Classification GV706.8.H62 1984 Dewey Decimal Classification 796.01
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Across the modern political spectrum, left-wing and right-wing political theorists have invested sport with ideological significance. That significance, however, varies distinctively and characteristically with the ideology—a phenomenon John Hoberman terms "ideological differentiation." Taking this phenomenon as its point of departure, this provocative work interprets the major sport ideologies of the twentieth century as distinct expressions of political doctrine. Hoberman argues that a political ideology's interpretation of sport is shaped in part by the value it assigns to work and play as modes of experience; the political anthropologies of right and left can be distinguished by examining their resistance to—or affinity for—sportive imagery of their leaders and of the state itself; there exists a fascist temperament that shows an affinity to athleticism and the sphere of the body that is not shared by the left. Tracing modern sport ideology back to its premodern antecedents, Hoberman examines the interpretations of sport that have been promulgated by European political intellectuals, such as cultural conservatives and contemporary neo-Marxists, and by the official ideologists of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic, and China before and after Mao. As a form of mass theater, sport can advertise any ideology. But the deeper relationship between sport and political ideology has never before been explored wth such vigor. Presenting the first general theory of sport and political ideology to appear in any language, Hoberman's groundbreaking work is a unique and invaluable contribution to the intellectual and political history of sport in the twentieth century.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
John Hoberman holds a Ph.D. in Scandinavian Languages and Literature from University of California, Berkeley. He has taught courses on globalization many times over the past ten years. He lectures on the international sports system and the global doping crisis in many countries around the world, and has published almost a hundred sports commentaries in newspapers and popular magazines.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments1. Sport in the Age of IdeologySport and IdeologyThe Symbolic Power of SportSport and Ideological DifferentiationBlood Sport as an Ideological VariableA Postscript on Ideology and American Sport2. The Labor-Leisure Dialectic and the Origins of IdeologyThe Problem of OriginsThe Marxists and PrehistoryThe Marxists on Labor and PlayThe Conservatives and PrehistoryJohan Huizinga and Josef Pieper versus the MarxistsThe Metaphysical Roots of the Quarrel3. The Body as an Ideological Variable: Sportive Imagery of Leadership and the StateTheoretical IntroductionNarcissistic Types of Body DisplaySportive Imagery and the Leader: The Fascist Political AthleteSportive Imagery and the Leader: Marxism’s Renunciation of the Political AthleteSportive Images of the State: Toward a Fascist StyleMarxism’s Renunciation of the Sportive (Organic) State4. The Political Psychologies of the Sportive and Antisportive TemperamentsFascism and the Sportive TemperamentNietzsche and the Authority of the BodyFascist Style and Sportive ManhoodSport and the Left IntellectualsVirility and the LeftWhat Marx Did Not Know5. From Amateurism to Nihilism: Sport, Cultural Conservatism, and the Critique of ModernitySport and the IntellectualsAn Early Sociology of SportAmbivalent Liberalism: Sport and Rational PlanningRadical Disillusion: Sport and the Spiritual Vacuum“Christian Fatalism”: Sport and the Decline of ValuesAristocratic Vitalism: Culture and the Sportive Style of LifeThe Critique of the Spectator6. Nazi Sport Theory: Racial Heroism and the Critique of SportThe Doctrine of the BodyThe Nazi Critique of SportA Comparative Perspective7. The Origins of Socialist Sport: Marxist Sport Culture in the Years of InnocenceEarly Soviet Sport IdeologyThe Workers’ Sport Movement in Germany, 1893–19338. Sport in the Soviet Union: Stalinization and the New Soviet AthleteSport, Labor, and the New Soviet ManThe New StakhanovitesThe Soviet Critique of Sport9. The Sport Culture of East Germany: Optimism and the Rationalization of the BodyThe Origins of East German Sport CultureSport, Play, and the Labor-Leisure DialecticThe Technological Human of the FutureThe Role of TraditionThe Critique of Capitalist Sport10. Purism and the Flight from the Superman: The Rise and Fall of Maoist SportThe Origins of Maoist SportMaoist Sport IdeologyThe End of Maoist Sport11. Toward the Abolition of “Sport”: Neo-Marxist Sport TheoryHistorical BackgroundThe Neo-Marxist Critique of SportThe Frankfurt School on Sport and the BodyNotesBibliographyIndex
University of Texas Press, 1984 eISBN: 978-0-292-76886-4 Paper: 978-0-292-77588-6
Across the modern political spectrum, left-wing and right-wing political theorists have invested sport with ideological significance. That significance, however, varies distinctively and characteristically with the ideology—a phenomenon John Hoberman terms "ideological differentiation." Taking this phenomenon as its point of departure, this provocative work interprets the major sport ideologies of the twentieth century as distinct expressions of political doctrine. Hoberman argues that a political ideology's interpretation of sport is shaped in part by the value it assigns to work and play as modes of experience; the political anthropologies of right and left can be distinguished by examining their resistance to—or affinity for—sportive imagery of their leaders and of the state itself; there exists a fascist temperament that shows an affinity to athleticism and the sphere of the body that is not shared by the left. Tracing modern sport ideology back to its premodern antecedents, Hoberman examines the interpretations of sport that have been promulgated by European political intellectuals, such as cultural conservatives and contemporary neo-Marxists, and by the official ideologists of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic, and China before and after Mao. As a form of mass theater, sport can advertise any ideology. But the deeper relationship between sport and political ideology has never before been explored wth such vigor. Presenting the first general theory of sport and political ideology to appear in any language, Hoberman's groundbreaking work is a unique and invaluable contribution to the intellectual and political history of sport in the twentieth century.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
John Hoberman holds a Ph.D. in Scandinavian Languages and Literature from University of California, Berkeley. He has taught courses on globalization many times over the past ten years. He lectures on the international sports system and the global doping crisis in many countries around the world, and has published almost a hundred sports commentaries in newspapers and popular magazines.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments1. Sport in the Age of IdeologySport and IdeologyThe Symbolic Power of SportSport and Ideological DifferentiationBlood Sport as an Ideological VariableA Postscript on Ideology and American Sport2. The Labor-Leisure Dialectic and the Origins of IdeologyThe Problem of OriginsThe Marxists and PrehistoryThe Marxists on Labor and PlayThe Conservatives and PrehistoryJohan Huizinga and Josef Pieper versus the MarxistsThe Metaphysical Roots of the Quarrel3. The Body as an Ideological Variable: Sportive Imagery of Leadership and the StateTheoretical IntroductionNarcissistic Types of Body DisplaySportive Imagery and the Leader: The Fascist Political AthleteSportive Imagery and the Leader: Marxism’s Renunciation of the Political AthleteSportive Images of the State: Toward a Fascist StyleMarxism’s Renunciation of the Sportive (Organic) State4. The Political Psychologies of the Sportive and Antisportive TemperamentsFascism and the Sportive TemperamentNietzsche and the Authority of the BodyFascist Style and Sportive ManhoodSport and the Left IntellectualsVirility and the LeftWhat Marx Did Not Know5. From Amateurism to Nihilism: Sport, Cultural Conservatism, and the Critique of ModernitySport and the IntellectualsAn Early Sociology of SportAmbivalent Liberalism: Sport and Rational PlanningRadical Disillusion: Sport and the Spiritual Vacuum“Christian Fatalism”: Sport and the Decline of ValuesAristocratic Vitalism: Culture and the Sportive Style of LifeThe Critique of the Spectator6. Nazi Sport Theory: Racial Heroism and the Critique of SportThe Doctrine of the BodyThe Nazi Critique of SportA Comparative Perspective7. The Origins of Socialist Sport: Marxist Sport Culture in the Years of InnocenceEarly Soviet Sport IdeologyThe Workers’ Sport Movement in Germany, 1893–19338. Sport in the Soviet Union: Stalinization and the New Soviet AthleteSport, Labor, and the New Soviet ManThe New StakhanovitesThe Soviet Critique of Sport9. The Sport Culture of East Germany: Optimism and the Rationalization of the BodyThe Origins of East German Sport CultureSport, Play, and the Labor-Leisure DialecticThe Technological Human of the FutureThe Role of TraditionThe Critique of Capitalist Sport10. Purism and the Flight from the Superman: The Rise and Fall of Maoist SportThe Origins of Maoist SportMaoist Sport IdeologyThe End of Maoist Sport11. Toward the Abolition of “Sport”: Neo-Marxist Sport TheoryHistorical BackgroundThe Neo-Marxist Critique of SportThe Frankfurt School on Sport and the BodyNotesBibliographyIndex