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Globalizing Sport: National Rivalry and International Community in the 1930s
Barbara Keys offers a major study of the political and cultural ramifications of international sports competitions in the decades before World War II. She examines the transformations of events like the Olympic Games and the World Cup from relatively small-scale events to the globally popular events.
- GenresSports
288 pages, Hardcover
First published October 30, 2006
18 people want to read
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December 22, 2015
The main value of Barbara Keys’ Globalizing Sport is the way in which it not only brings together the scattered secondary sources that engage the relationship between sport and politics, but augments and updates them through the use of primary sources from several key nations. Conceptualizing international sport as something that rose as a sovereign entity during the 1930s, the author argues that despite the hardships of that decade, there was a growth in international ties due to “sport’s peculiar potency as a means of mediating between national and international identities”. International sport was national in theory, but forced upon its constituent nations a particular discourse that overrode nationalism. Her work, therefore, chronicles the development of international sport and highlights the key turning points that transformed it from an abode of elite, white professional males to a phenomenon that could be negotiated across race, sex, and class.
Keys begins her narrative with the emergence of the idea of exercise as being a way to support a healthy nation, as it was tied to military power, and highlights the contest between the competitive sport and gymnastic movements for hegemony over the discourse of physical culture. The individualistic nature of gymnastics meant that it was not internationalist and did not build community, which in turn meant that it had to be promulgated by governments. Modern team sports, on the other hand, were conducive to group cohesion and were spread by British subjects, rather than the state. World War I helped spread these games and tie them to nationalist agendas, with technological advances and the rise of sports federations helping to facilitate this process. International organizations were elitist and non-democratic, but also supported the international sporting system as they moved, at least in theory, towards the idea of equality in sport. The author takes an in-depth look at two of the most important of these, the International Olympic Committee and the International Football Federation, and demonstrates how their growth helped develop sport into a universal language.
Keys next turns to the United States, which she characterizes as relatively isolationist in terms of its sporting culture. Yet, she argues, through its hosting of the 1932 Summer Olympics, “[t]he major ‘democratizing’ effect of U.S. influence, however, was to hasten the transformation of international sport from an elite cultural pursuit to a mass cultural phenomenon based on commercialism”. The 1932 Summer Olympics was an opportunity to increase tourism, thus they wanted to make the event a spectacle, leading them to focus on the press and public relations and set new standards for organization. Situated in Hollywood, the Olympics became tied to celebrity and a center for business and commercialization, as companies realized the potential for advertising. Symbolism and traditions, such as the Olympic Village, also rose in prominence, and overall significant strides were taken in the direction of internationalism and mass participation.
The Americans, however, refused to acknowledge the political realities surrounding the Games and thus did not take advantage of them. That task was left to Nazi Germany, which hosted the 1936 Summer Olympics despite the fact that Hitler could have focused on gymnastics, which had a strong following in the country. This was because he recognized the propaganda value of international sport and thus wanted to use it to make connections and influence opinion abroad. Thus the Nazis attempted to build upon and outdo everything that the Americans had established in 1932, but added an overt element of politics to the mix. As the author points out, however, sport contains an element of uncertainty in regards to its outcomes, which means that it can never be monopolized completely as an ideological vehicle for one group. Furthermore, participation in international sport entailed submission to a discourse of equality (even if this was applied more rhetorically than pragmatically), which forced the Nazis to tone down their rhetoric and take steps to at least appear as if they did not possess a racist ideology. Thus the propaganda effect ended up having more impact at home than it did abroad, as the festival was forced to be apolitical in most aspects, making it a rare triumph of internationalism over Nazism.
Keys final body chapter engages the Soviet Union and chronicles how its desire to seek a more “proletarian” system of support quickly gave way to the regime’s need to utilize the western version as a tool of foreign policy. Literally beating capitalists at their own game became a way in which the Soviets could trumpet the power of their ideology over that of the west. The author summarizes the overarching theme of her book in the conclusion by postulating that modern sport’s “competitors” faded during the interwar period and disappeared shortly thereafter, because its popular pull and usefulness in international policy led it to thrive. Overall, Globalizing Sport will not add much to the specialist’s understanding of the topic, but is otherwise an excellent summary whose conciseness does not mitigate its informative power. Specialists, therefore, will find it to be a useful reference, while the uninitiated will find it approachable and illuminating.
Keys begins her narrative with the emergence of the idea of exercise as being a way to support a healthy nation, as it was tied to military power, and highlights the contest between the competitive sport and gymnastic movements for hegemony over the discourse of physical culture. The individualistic nature of gymnastics meant that it was not internationalist and did not build community, which in turn meant that it had to be promulgated by governments. Modern team sports, on the other hand, were conducive to group cohesion and were spread by British subjects, rather than the state. World War I helped spread these games and tie them to nationalist agendas, with technological advances and the rise of sports federations helping to facilitate this process. International organizations were elitist and non-democratic, but also supported the international sporting system as they moved, at least in theory, towards the idea of equality in sport. The author takes an in-depth look at two of the most important of these, the International Olympic Committee and the International Football Federation, and demonstrates how their growth helped develop sport into a universal language.
Keys next turns to the United States, which she characterizes as relatively isolationist in terms of its sporting culture. Yet, she argues, through its hosting of the 1932 Summer Olympics, “[t]he major ‘democratizing’ effect of U.S. influence, however, was to hasten the transformation of international sport from an elite cultural pursuit to a mass cultural phenomenon based on commercialism”. The 1932 Summer Olympics was an opportunity to increase tourism, thus they wanted to make the event a spectacle, leading them to focus on the press and public relations and set new standards for organization. Situated in Hollywood, the Olympics became tied to celebrity and a center for business and commercialization, as companies realized the potential for advertising. Symbolism and traditions, such as the Olympic Village, also rose in prominence, and overall significant strides were taken in the direction of internationalism and mass participation.
The Americans, however, refused to acknowledge the political realities surrounding the Games and thus did not take advantage of them. That task was left to Nazi Germany, which hosted the 1936 Summer Olympics despite the fact that Hitler could have focused on gymnastics, which had a strong following in the country. This was because he recognized the propaganda value of international sport and thus wanted to use it to make connections and influence opinion abroad. Thus the Nazis attempted to build upon and outdo everything that the Americans had established in 1932, but added an overt element of politics to the mix. As the author points out, however, sport contains an element of uncertainty in regards to its outcomes, which means that it can never be monopolized completely as an ideological vehicle for one group. Furthermore, participation in international sport entailed submission to a discourse of equality (even if this was applied more rhetorically than pragmatically), which forced the Nazis to tone down their rhetoric and take steps to at least appear as if they did not possess a racist ideology. Thus the propaganda effect ended up having more impact at home than it did abroad, as the festival was forced to be apolitical in most aspects, making it a rare triumph of internationalism over Nazism.
Keys final body chapter engages the Soviet Union and chronicles how its desire to seek a more “proletarian” system of support quickly gave way to the regime’s need to utilize the western version as a tool of foreign policy. Literally beating capitalists at their own game became a way in which the Soviets could trumpet the power of their ideology over that of the west. The author summarizes the overarching theme of her book in the conclusion by postulating that modern sport’s “competitors” faded during the interwar period and disappeared shortly thereafter, because its popular pull and usefulness in international policy led it to thrive. Overall, Globalizing Sport will not add much to the specialist’s understanding of the topic, but is otherwise an excellent summary whose conciseness does not mitigate its informative power. Specialists, therefore, will find it to be a useful reference, while the uninitiated will find it approachable and illuminating.
January 28, 2015
Interesting look at how sports in the 1920s/30s contributed to both nationalism and transnationalism. Keys concentrates on the rise of the Olympics and FIFA and the way these organizations worked to "channel nationalism in international directions." How the international community shaped nationalism, in a way. I had never thought about this angle on the era...in the USA, for example, the 1930s was a time of isolationism, but even isolationists were in favor of engaging with the world through sports. In Germany, the Nazis really wanted the international legitimacy hosting the Olympics would bring, so they were willing to abide by international rules and norms to host in 1936. The Soviets didn't want to engage with the West at all, but it turns out they really wanted to beat the West at sports. Keys draws a comparison with the League of Nations - both the Olympics/FIFA and the L.O.N. were developing in the early part of the 20th century, and the sports organizations saw all this success while the League failed.
I like making sports a part of history! Sports gets ignored, and Keys is smart to look at the era through this angle.
I like making sports a part of history! Sports gets ignored, and Keys is smart to look at the era through this angle.
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