Course Description
Sports have been a critical aspect of human culture from prehistoric times. Angling contests were held in Ancient Sumer; sports are described in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Iliad. This course focuses on how sports have both reflected and facilitated the historical change from ancient times to now.
Athena Title
The History of Sport
Pre or Corequisite
One course in HIST or INTL or GLOB or PBHL or KINS or PEDB or SOCI or ENGL or POLS
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students will learn: • How to analyze a primary source (explain its major features and concerns, figure out what perspectives are highlighted or marginalized, pinpoint implicit understandings that the evidence reveals unintentionally, and acknowledge what uncertainties remain). • How to formulate a question about the past and locate primary and secondary sources that can actually help answer it. • How an event or historical situation is “more complicated” than it seems to be at first glance (in terms of diverse experiences, multiple lines of causation). • How to read a historical monograph or substantial scholarly article, identify its research question and argument, understand how it uses historical evidence, explain how its answer is new, and suggest how our view of history changes as a result of its findings.
Topical Outline
Topics of the course include: • Do animals play sports? • What sports did our prehistoric ancestors play? • What role do sports generally play in human culture? • What are the origins of the major sports: track and field, soccer, football, basketball, boxing, baseball, golf? • From early sports betting to moneyball, what role has money played in sports, and what role have sports played in the global economy? • How has media changed sports and vice versa? • How have sports been particularly important to the history of race and gender?