CURRENTLY SOLD OUT

Reading Football: How the Popular Press Created an American Spectacle by Michael Oriard (Paperback, 1998)

About this product

Product Information

Is football an athletic contest or a social event? Is it a game of skill, a test of manhood, or merely an organized brawl? Michael Oriard, a former professional player, asks these and other intriguing questions in Reading Football , the first contemporary book about football's formative years. American football began in the 1870s as a game to be played, t watched. Within a brief ten years, it had become a great public spectacle with an immense following, a phemen caused primarily by the volumius commentary about the game conducted in popular newspapers and magazines. Oriard shows how this constant narrative in football's early years developed many different stories about what the game meant : football as pastime, as the sport of gentlemen, as a science, as a game of rules and their infringements. He shows how football became a series of cultural stories about power, luck, strategy, and deception. These different interpretations have been magnified by football's current omnipresence on television. According to Oriard, televised football w plays a cultural role of ermous importance for men, yet within the field of cultural studies the influence of football has been igred until w. From the book: A receiver sprints down the sideline, fast and graceful, then breaks toward the middle of the field where a safety waits for him. From forty yards upfield the quarterback releases the ball; it spirals in an elegant arc toward the goalposts as the receiver w for the first time looks back to pick up its flight. The pass is a little high; the receiver leaps, stretches, grasps the ball--barely, fingers clutching--at the very moment that the safety drives a helmet into his unprotected ribs. The force of the collision flings the receiver backward, slamming him to the turf...This familiar tableau, this exemplary moment in a football game, epitomizes the appeal of the sport: the dramatic confrontation of artistry with violence, both equally necessary. |The first contemporary book about football's formative years. Oriard, a former professional football player, examines how American football changed from a game to be played to a game to be watched.

Product Identifiers

Publisher
The University of North Carolina Press
ISBN-10
0807847518
ISBN-13
9780807847510
eBay Product ID (ePID)
96305991

Dimensions

Height
235mm
Width
156mm

Additional Product Features

Place of Publication
Chapel Hill
Series Title
Cultural Studies of the United States
Content Note
66 Illustrations, Bibliography, Index
Author Biography
Michael Oriard, who played professional football for the Kansas City Chiefs from 1970 to 1973, is Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture at Oregon State University. He is author of Dreaming of Heroes: American Sports Fiction, 1868-1980, The End of Autumn: Reflections on My Life in Football, and Sporting with the Gods: The Rhetoric of Play and Game in American Culture.
Foreword by
Alan Trachtenberg
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Author(s)
Michael Oriard
Date of Publication
31/08/1998
Subject
Ball Games: Field & Outdoor
Imprint
The University of North Carolina Press
Edition Statement
New Edition
Genre
Ball Games: Field & Outdoor
Country of Publication
United States

Best Selling in Books, CDs, DVDs

See all

Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in Books, CDs, DVDs

The Book of Enoch by Enoch (Hardback, 2017)
5.0 out of 5 stars based on 4 product ratings
AU $39.57 New
---- Used
KJV Giant Print Standard Red Letters with Thumb-Indexing Brown by Christian Art Publishers (Leather / fine binding, 2017)
5.0 out of 5 stars based on 4 product ratings
AU $77.28 New
---- Used
Deliverance Prayers: For Use by the Laity by Fr Chad a Ripperger Phd (Paperback / softback, 2016)
5.0 out of 5 stars based on 2 product ratings
AU $40.07 New
---- Used
The Book of Yes: The Ultimate Real Estate Agent Conversation Guide by Dr Kevin Ward (Paperback / softback, 2016)
5.0 out of 5 stars based on 2 product ratings
AU $40.69 New
---- Used

Save on Books, CDs, DVDs

Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on Books, CDs, DVDs

Rit Dye Powder - Dark green
AU $6.59
Trending at AU $6.95
RIT Powder Fabric Dye, KELLY GREEN, 31.9g (1 1/8 oz) Insured Tracked Postage For
AU $6.19
Trending at AU $6.87
The Book of Enoch (Hardback) (US IMPORT)
AU $39.57
Trending at AU $44.51
Rit Dye Powder - Fuchsia
AU $6.59
Trending at AU $6.95
Jacques Vallee Passport to Magonia (Paperback)
AU $63.60
Trending at AU $78.54
Deliverance Prayers: For Use by the Laity by Ripperger, Chad A. -Paperback
AU $35.99
Trending at AU $38.16