Defending the American Way of Life: Sport, Culture and the Cold War

Defending the American Way of Life, an entry in the “Sport, Culture, and Society” series of the University of Arkansas Press, is a welcome contribution to the growing literature on the intersection of sport and politics during the Cold War. This volume, edited by Toby Rider and Kevin Witherspoon, contains thirteen essays, plus an introduction and conclusion, by a mix of luminaries in the field of sport history along with some promising emerging scholars. The essays consider such issues as the links between governmental and non-governmental efforts to present the United States positively through sport while challenging Soviet propaganda; questions about amateurism and various kinds of cheating; gender roles and the importance of “real women” and “real men” to the conduct of the Cold War; and race as the “Achilles’ heel” of the United States in its quest to win hearts and minds around the world. (Disclosure: Witherspoon was...