East Plays West

The Cold War spanned some five decades from the devastation that remained after World War Two until the fall of the Berlin wall, and for much of that time the perception was that only on the Eastern side were politics and sport inextricably linked. However, this assumption underestimates the extent to which sport was an important symbol for both power blocs in their ongoing ideological struggle. This collection of essays from leading international authorities on sport, culture and ideology brings together an impressive body of work organized around key political themes and outstanding moments in sport, and is at once a political history of sport and an illuminating new perspective on the forces that shaped this unsettled time.

Stephen Wagg is Reader in Sport and Society at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. David L. Andrews is Associate Professor in Sport, Commerce and Culture at the University of Maryland, USA.

Introduction, David L. Andrews, Stephen Wagg; Chapter 1 Totalitarian regimes and Cold War sport, Rob Beamish, Ian Ritchie; Chapter 2 Verbal gymnastics, Jenifer Parks; Chapter 3 Cold War expatriot sport, Robert E. Rinehart; Chapter 4 Cold War football, Ronnie Kowalski, Dilwyn Porter; Chapter 5 "Oscillating antagonism", John Bale; Chapter 6 "If you want the girl next door ...", Stephen Wagg; Chapter 7 The "muscle gap", Jeffrey Montez de Oca; Chapter 8 Good versus evil?, Paul Dimeo; Chapter 9 The Cold War and the (re)articulation of Canadian national identity, Jay Scherer, Gregory H. Duquette, Daniel S. Mason; Chapter 10 "One day, when the Yankees ..."*This chapter was originally published in Milton Jamail's book Full Count: Inside Cuban Baseball, pp. 1-12 and 119-30. © 2000 by the Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois University, reprinted by permission., Milton H. Jamail; Chapter 11 Playing the "race card", Damion Thomas; Chapter 12 "Miraculous" masculinity meets militarization, Mary G. McDonald; Chapter 13 The Soviet Union and the Olympic Games of 1980 and 1984, Evelyn Mertin; Chapter 14 "Sport and politics don't mix", Susan Brownell; Chapter 15 Sport after the Cold War, James Riordan; Chapter 16 Performing America's past, Michael Silk, Bryan Bracey, Mark Falcous; Chapter 17 Beyond the stadium, and into the street, Eunha Koh, David L. Andrews, Ryan White;