No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Reading the reviews, I can understand why a non-knitter would not be charmed by this book. This book is by, for and about knitters. Whenever I'm bogged down with my knitting, I pick this book up again, seeking inspiration from 200 years of American knitters. The book is delightfully written, with lots of original source quotations, and allows us to peek into the day-to-day lives of colonial knitters, revolutionary war knitters, civil war knitters, depression era knitters, etc. It gives one a strong sense of women's role in American society at different times, reminds us (often amusingly) about fads and trends, and shows how wars shape lives beyond the battlefields. It's a wonderful book. My only regret is that it doesn't have more photographs of knitters and old knit garments.

Click Here to see more reviews about: No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting

Drawn from diaries, letters and personal reminiscences, No Idle Hands tells an intimate and sometimes hair-raising story of hand knitting in America from Colonial times onward. Women knit through the hardships of covered wagon travel across the West. They knit to save their husbands and sons from freezing to death on battlefields. Shell-shocked men knit to save their sanity in hospitals during both world wars. No Idle Hands documents the importance knitting has had in American life.--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Click here for more information about No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting

Read More...

Daily Life through World History in Primary Documents (Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is an interesting set, full of short segments that you won't find collected elsewhere. I assume it is aimed at history buffs and libraries; but neither individual readers nor libraries have much in their book budgets currently. At $100 a volume, I think this was published at the wrong time. I used interlibrary loan to get a look at the set and the copy I was lent came from Iowa, about 1,500 miles from here.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Daily Life through World History in Primary Documents (Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series)

Click here for more information about Daily Life through World History in Primary Documents (Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series)

Read More...

The Compleat Angler (Oxford World's Classics) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)There is a reason why this work is still in publication. Across the centuries Izaak Walton communicates his enthusiasm for the sport of fishing. I met Mr. Walton in a Later Renaissance lit class, but I wanted to renew the acquaintance in a less formal setting. For a time travel vacation with a spot of fishing The Compleat Angler is perfect.
Don't read it in a hurry. A page here and a page there. It was written for advice and for enjoyment.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Compleat Angler (Oxford World's Classics)

The greatest classic of angling literature and a unique celebration of the English countryside, Izaak Walton's IThe Compleat AnglerR was originally published in 1653 and first appeared with Charles Cotton's continuation in 1676.No book, apart from the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, has been more often reprinted. As a treatise on the art of fishing it has never wholly been superseded.For its advice on the catching and cooking of fish, the rules for baits, and the making of artificial flies, it remains a valuable and engrossing guide.As a graceful and affectionate portrait of rural England its charm is irresistible and in Walton and Cotton we could not wish for more congenial companions. This illustrated edition, with an Introduction by the novelist John Buchan, has been expanded and revised by John Buxton.About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Click here for more information about The Compleat Angler (Oxford World's Classics)

Read More...

Heroines of Sport: The Politics of Difference and Identity Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)There are surprisingly few books on women (and queer people) in sport, and of the few I found, this was the one most appropriate for introducing the topic to undergraduate students who are not specifically studying sports sociology. I used it as background reading for a lecture on sports and music in a queer music survey course, and it was just what I needed. The arguments generally are not very novel, and anyone with a background in women's studies or queer studies would not find much very new here, but it is a good resource for introducing many of these standard issues to non-specialist undergrad students, and it is unique in its coverage on women and sport. Overall, I'm glad to have it on my shelf, and have used it several times.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Heroines of Sport: The Politics of Difference and Identity

Heroines of Sport looks closely at different groups of women whose stories have been excluded from previous accounts of women's sports and female heroism. It focuses on five specific groups of women from different places in the world South African women; Muslim women from the Middle East; Aboriginal women from Australia and Canada; and lesbian and disabled women from different countries worldwide. It also asks searching questions about colonialism and neo-colonialism in the women's international sport movement.The particular groups of women featured in the book reflect the need to look at specific categories of difference relating to class, culture, disability, ethnicity, race, religion and sexual orientation. In her account, Jennifer Hargreaves reveals how the participation of women in sport across the world is tied to their sense of difference and identity. Based on original research each chapter includes material which relates to significant political and cultural developments.Heroines of Sport will be invaluable reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of sport sociology, and will also be relevant for students working in women's studies and other specialized fields, such as developments development studies or the politics of Aboriginality, disability, Islam, race and sexuality.

Click here for more information about Heroines of Sport: The Politics of Difference and Identity

Read More...

Stagg's University: The Rise, Decline, and Fall of Big-Time Football at Chicago (Sport and Society) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Problems facing college football programs today include paying players, questionable player eligibility, and the fact that the bottom line is money-money-money. This book shows that these same problems were a factor in the development, rise, and fall of one of the pioneer college football programs.
Book gives insight into the history of the University of Chicago football program. Book focuses on the policy behind opponent scheduling, maintaining the eligibility of marginal students, and the issues of money-money-money. Good review of Stagg's career at the school, where he was viewed as the most important figure at the university for most of his tenure. Fine review of the decision to discontinue the sport, the first school from a major conference to do so.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Stagg's University: The Rise, Decline, and Fall of Big-Time Football at Chicago (Sport and Society)

For this first case study of college football by a social historian, Lester has brought life to the story of a university football program that had an unusual beginning, a glorious middle, and a unique and inglorious conclusion. The nation's first tenured coach and the most creative and entrepreneurial of all college coaches from the 1890s to the 1920s, Amos Alonzo Stagg headed a program marked by creation of the letterman's club and by the dominant use of the forward pass, of jersey numbers, and of the collegiate modern T formation. Stagg, who had been an all-American football player at Yale University, joined the company of nine former college or seminary presidents and academic notables including John Dewey, Thorstein Veblen, and Albert Michelson when he was named associate professor of physical culture and coach of the football team at the University of Chicago in 1892. Within fifteen years the charismatic Stagg had developed a program so powerful that more Americans knew of it than of the physics experiments of Michelson, who in 1907 became the first U.S. citizen to win the Nobel Prize.The logical commercial trail established by Stagg and University President William Rainey Harper helped change football into a mass entertainment industry on American campuses. This fascinating look at the birth of bigtime college sport shows how today's gridiron glory and scandal were prefigured in Chicago's football industry of the early twentieth century, presided over by the brilliant, combative, saintly, but very human Amos Alonzo Stagg.

Click here for more information about Stagg's University: The Rise, Decline, and Fall of Big-Time Football at Chicago (Sport and Society)

Read More...

Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)If you're tired of reading the same type of takes on sports - the rambles full of pop culture references that pretend to stand for real commentary, the reactionary critiques of the sports villain of the week, read Welcome to the Terrordome. You'll most likely spend half your time laughing and the other half amazed that Mr. Zirin has been reading your mind.
It doesn't take much experience reading sports columnists, or listening to them talk on TV, to come away with a pretty grim view of the sports world. The profession seems to attract a sort of bitter, fatalist heckler who wants to forget that it's not just a game. Well, it isn't just a game - it's an industry, one that sometimes gets to write its own rules but more often has to live in the same world we all do - the one with pain, politics and promise.
Dave Zirin has the perspective and vision to put these pieces together, to see how the sports world meshes and collides with the real world. And when he heckles - which he does often, and with panache - it's cutting but not cruel.
There's a strong current of humanity in Dave's writing. This isn't a lunkhead screaming from the cheap seats, it's someone who wants to see excellence and fairness at all levels of sport - the field, the office, the media. With all the time and money we spend on it, that's the least we can ask.


Click Here to see more reviews about: Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports


"Dave Zirin is the best young sportswriter in America."—Robert Lipsyte

This much-anticipated sequel to What's My Name, Fool? by acclaimed commentator Dave Zirin breaks new ground in sports writing, looking at the controversies and trends now shaping sports in the United States—and abroad. Features chapters such as "Barry Bonds is Gonna Git Your Mama: The Last Word on Steroids," "Pro Basketball and the Two Souls of Hip-Hop," "An Icon's Redemption: The Great Roberto Clemente," and "Beisbol: How the Major Leagues Eat Their Young."

Zirin's commentary is always insightful, never predictable.

Dave Zirin is the author of the widely acclaimed book What's My Name, Fool? (Haymarket Books) and writes the weekly column "Edge of Sports" (edgeofsports.com). He writes a regular column for The Nation and Slam magazine and has appeared as a sports commentator on ESPN TV and radio, CBNC, WNBC, Democracy Now!, Air America, Radio Nation, and Pacifica.

Chuck D redefined rap music and hip-hop culture as leader and co-founder of the legendary rap group Public Enemy. Spike Lee calls him "one of the most politically and socially conscious artists of any generation." He co-hosts a weekly radio show on Air America.

Click here for more information about Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports

Read More...