A People's History of Tennis


Book Description

Tennis is much more than Wimbledon! This story reveals the hidden history of the sport.




Tennis


Book Description




A People’s History of Sports in the United States


Book Description

From the author Robert Lipsyte calls "the best young sportswriter in America," a rollicking, rebellious, myth-busting history of sports in America that puts politics in the ring with pop culture In this long-waited book from the rising superstar of sportswriting, whose blog Edge of Sports is read each week by thousands of people across the country, Dave Zirin offers a riotously entertaining chronicle of larger-than-life sporting characters and dramatic contests and what amounts to an alternative history of the United States as seen through the games its people played. Through Zirin's eyes, sports are never mere games, but a reflection of—and spur toward—the political conflicts that shape American society. Half a century before Jackie Robinson was born, the black ballplayer Moses Fleetwood Walker brandished a revolver to keep racist fans at bay, then took his regular place in the lineup. In the midst of the Depression, when almost no black athletes were allowed on the U.S. Olympic team, athletes held a Counter Olympics where a third of the participants were African American. A People's History of Sports in the United States is replete with surprises for seasoned sports fans, while anyone interested in history will be amazed by the connections Zirin draws between politics and pop flies. As Jeff Chang, author of Can't Stop Won't Stop, puts it, "After you read him, you'll never see sports the same way again."




The History of Tennis


Book Description

All the passion, drama, and beauty of tennis is captured in this most up-to-date comprehensive history--from its early beginnings as a sport, the greatest matches ever played, to its global star players and personalities of present day. This volume is a must-read for tennis aficionados. Tennis, the much-loved sport, is a game for the ages dating back to sixteenth-century royal court matches played by King Henry VIII. History of Tennis captures the sport's long history, never short of theatrics, rivalries, power plays, political controversies, and inspiring personal stories. Beautiful historic and contemporary images of gripping matches like the unforgettable Bjorn Borg versus John McEnroe tiebreak match in 1980, to behind-the-scenes moments with tennis legends, and never-before-seen shots, grace each page accompanied by Richard Evans's intriguing stories and unique insight detailing the evolution of this majestic sport by decade. Starting as a European royal pastime and gaining popularity in England and France, the sport made its way to America in the late 1870s as the new game of lawn tennis, creating along the centuries legendary tennis superstars such as Bill Tilden, Suzanne Lenglen and the Four Musketeers, Fred Perry, Billie Jean King, John McEnroe, and Steffi Graf. Now one of the most highly watched sports globally with top-billing icons like Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, and Naomi Osaka, there is no stopping the power of this allenthralling game. This is a must-have volume for lifelong fans and those intrigued by the sporting theater and grand culture of tennis.




A Social History of Tennis in Britain


Book Description

Winner of the Lord Aberdare Literary Prize 2015- from the British Society for Sports History. From its advent in the mid-late nineteenth century as a garden-party pastime to its development into a highly commercialised and professionalised high-performance sport, the history of tennis in Britain reflects important themes in Britain’s social history. In the first comprehensive and critical account of the history of tennis in Britain, Robert Lake explains how the game’s historical roots have shaped its contemporary structure, and how the history of tennis can tell us much about the history of wider British society. Since its emergence as a spare-time diversion for landed elites, the dominant culture in British tennis has been one of amateurism and exclusion, with tennis sitting alongside cricket and golf as a vehicle for the reproduction of middle-class values throughout wider British society in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Consequently, the Lawn Tennis Association has been accused of a failure to promote inclusion or widen participation, despite steadfast efforts to develop talent and improve coaching practices and structures. Robert Lake examines these themes in the context of the global development of tennis and important processes of commercialisation and professional and social development that have shaped both tennis and wider society. The social history of tennis in Britain is a microcosm of late-nineteenth and twentieth-century British social history: sustained class power and class conflict; struggles for female emancipation and racial integration; the decline of empire; and, Britain’s shifting relationship with America, continental Europe, and Commonwealth nations. This book is important and fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the history of sport or British social history.




The Bud Collins History of Tennis


Book Description

Compiled by the most famous tennis journalist and historian in the world, this book is the ultimate compilation of historical tennis information, including year-by-year recaps of every tennis season, biographical sketches of every major tennis personality, as well as stats, records, and championship rolls for all the major events. The author's personal relationships with major tennis stars offer insights into the world of professional tennis found nowhere else.




Tennis


Book Description

The cover painting shows an 18th-century Italian game of tennis, and the opening chapter is intriguingly subtitled "Tennis and the Devil." Gillmeister (linguistics, U. of Bonn) provides a sociohistorical survey of this popular sport. Illustrations and photos as well as commentary trace the game from its origins as "the monk's racket" --an attenuated medieval form of football--, through Renaissance literary references to it, to its evolution as lawn tennis in America and Europe. Distributed in the US by Books International. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR




A People's History of Heaven


Book Description

A politically driven graffiti artist. A transgender Christian convert. A blind girl who loves to dance. A queer daughter of a hijabi union leader. These are some of the young women who live in a Bangalore slum known as Heaven, young women whom readers will come to love in the moving, atmospheric, and deeply inspiring debut, A People's History of Heaven. Welcome to Heaven, a thirty-year-old slum hidden between brand-new high-rise apartment buildings and technology incubators in contemporary Bangalore, one of India's fastest-growing cities. In Heaven, you will come to know a community made up almost entirely of women, mothers and daughters who have been abandoned by their men when no male heir was produced. Living hand-to-mouth and constantly struggling against the city government who wants to bulldoze their homes and build yet more glass high-rises, these women, young and old, gladly support one another, sharing whatever they can. A People's History of Heaven centers on five best friends, girls who go to school together, a diverse group who love and accept one another unconditionally, pulling one another through crises and providing emotional, physical, and financial support. Together they wage war on the bulldozers that would bury their homes, and, ultimately, on the city that does not care what happens to them. This is a story about geography, history, and strength, about love and friendship, about fighting for the people and places we love--even if no one else knows they exist. Elegant, poetic, bursting with color, Mathangi Subramanian's novel is a moving and celebratory story of girls on the cusp of adulthood who find joy just in the basic act of living.




The Bud Collins History of Tennis


Book Description

Compiled by the world's foremost tennis historian and journalist, this book is the ultimate collection of historical tennis information, including year-by-year recaps of every tennis season and biographical sketches of every major tennis personality, as well as stats, records, and championship rolls for all of the major events. This third edition is updated with the latest history-making records and covers the recent achievements of a galaxy of stars--including Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, and Serena Williams--without forgetting the contributions of some of the foundational names in the sport, such as Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, and Andre Agassi. Collins highlights his own personal relationships with the sport's biggest names, offering insights into the world of professional tennis that can't be found anywhere else.




A People's History of the United States


Book Description

Superwriter and Supermodel Lin Xun (that's Lin as the covergirl) is the author of this full frontal exposure of the USA. Find out what is taught in the schools of other countries that the USA doesn't teach in its schools. Xun teaches the USA's history to students in China (and other countries), including facts hidden in the USA's classrooms such as: (1) that the "Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag" was the origin of the Nazi salute and Nazi behavior; (2) Swastikas represented crossed "S" letter shapes for "socialist" under Hitler (two of the many astounding discoveries by Sociologist Dr. Rex Curry). Xun reveals all on flag bikinis, flag fetishism, flag propaganda, and more. Each book is personally handled, wrapped, and posted by Lin Xun (in the nude). Or by the publisher, depending on who's available. What do other countries think about the USA's Pledge of Allegiance today? Xun tells all as she joins forces with the Dead Writers Club in this eye-popping page-turner. Learn how the USA and its pledge inspired police states globally. Will America escape the madness? Will you? Save yourself from the cult of the ominpotent state! The book "A People's History of the United States" introduces readers to Anarchaeology, Misanthropology, and the Socialist Crusades, the Latest Socialist Dark Age, and the Modern Socialist Inquisitions, which resulted in the Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part). Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and other socialists are exposed along with the influence of socialists in the United States upon those dictators. As part of the Dead Writers Club (DWC), Lin Xun has collaborated with the authors Micky Barnetti and Matt Crypto. Another volume by the Dead Writers Club is the self-titled "Dead Writers Club" and "Drug Detection Dog Training -Libertarian Lawyers Fight Police State USA." The DWC collaborated on the groundbreaking book "Pledge of Allegiance & Swastika Secrets." It is a semi-biographical work about the nation's leading authority on the Pledge of Allegiance and his many discoveries about its bizarre past and present. The DWC also assisted with a classic science fiction tale revealing an amazing discovery about time travel.