From Ritual to Record: The Nature of Modern Sports

Allen Guttmann

updated edition
September, 2004
Paper, 224 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13341-8
$28.50 / £17.00

"A pioneering work in a field remarkably little touched. . . For any future writer about the philosophy or the sociology of sport in general, this book will be required reading." — Julian Symons, Times Literary Supplement

"The chief advantage that Guttmann has over other sports theoreticians is a willingness to employ the techniques of modern rhetoric in creating some order out of the ideological confusion now swirling around his subject. He is a definer, a synthesizer, a causal analyst, as well as an arguer and a counter-arguer." — Virginia Quarterly

"The most intelligent book yet published in English on modern sport. It is solidly based on the most rigorous previous scholarship and more so on earnest observation and careful thought. Henceforth writers on American sport must absorb the content of the book or suffer deserved embarrassment." — Richard D. Mandell, Journal of American History

"[Guttmann’s] lucid, original, stimulating, blessedly jargon-free book does something to lighten our darkness. His pleasant, incisive style reflects a mind uncluttered by prejudice or ideology." — Brian Glanville, London Sunday Times

"[Guttmann is] our most distinguished contemporary thinker on the nature and role of sport in society." — A. Bartlett Giamatti, late commissioner of baseball

"The most accomplished analyst and critic of sport of our age." — Richard D. Mandell, author of Sport: A Cultural History

About the Author

Allen Guttmann is professor of American studies at Amherst College. His many books include The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games, Games and Empires: Modern Sports and Cultural Imperialism (Columbia), and a translation of Peter Kühnst’s Sports: A Cultural History in the Mirror of Art. He lives in Leverett, Massachusetts.

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