Sports Science

The National Basketball Association is a place where white fans and Black players enact virtually every racial issue and tension in US culture. Following the Seattle SuperSonics for an entire season, David Shields explores how, in a predominantly Black sport, White fans - including especially himself - think about and talk about Black heroes, Black scapegoats, and Black bodies. Critically acclaimed and highly controversial, Black Planet was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN USA Award, and was named one of the Top Ten Nonfiction Books of 1999.

Every spring, billions of birds sweep north, driven by ancient instincts to return to their breeding grounds. This vast parade often goes unnoticed, except in a few places where these small travelers concentrate in large numbers. One such place is along Lake Erie in northwestern Ohio. There, the peak of spring migration is so spectacular that it attracts bird watchers from around the globe, culminating in one of the world’s biggest birding festivals. Now climate change threatens to disrupt patterns of migration and the delicate balance between birds, seasons, and habitats.

In this compelling new book, relying on original reporting from the most dangerous corners of Rio to the halls of power in Washington, DC, Dave Zirin examines how sports and politics are colliding in remarkable fashion in Brazil, opening up an international conversation on the culture, economics, and politics of sports.

天才はどうやって弱点を才能で補ってきたか。

天才とは、いったい何なのだろう。アインシュタインなどの非凡な才能の持ち主は、私たちが精神的な欠陥とみなす「脳の特異性」を持っていた。

In The Title, Scott Murray delivers a lively, cherry-picked history of the country's football narrative through the prism of the old First Division. Rich with humour yet underpinned with solid research, this is a glorious ramble across English football's varied terrain. With as much about Preston, Burnley, Wolves, Portsmouth and West Brom as the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United, we learn the less well-known stories the sport has to tell, such as the plight of Glossop - the smallest club to ever play top-flight football.

These days, swimming may seem like the most egalitarian of pastimes, open to anyone with a swimsuit - but this wasn't always the case. In the 19th century, swimming was exclusively the domain of men, and access to pools was a luxury limited by class. Women were (barely) allowed to swim in the sea, as long as no men were around, but even into the 20th century they could be arrested and fined if they dared dive into a lake. It wasn't until the 1930s that women were finally granted equal access.

From her first strokes as a novice, Ginny Gilder found herself in a new world, training with Olympic rowers and participating in the famous Title IX naked protest, which helped define the movement for equality in college sports. Short, asthmatic, and stubborn, Gilder made the team against all odds and for the next 10 years devoted herself to answering a seemingly simple question: how badly do you want to go fast?

Eagle Blue follows the Fort Yukon Eagles, winners of six regional championships in a row, through the course of an entire 28-game season, from their first day of practice in late November to the Alaska State Championship Tournament in March. With insight, frankness, and compassion, Michael D’Orso climbs into the lives of these 14 boys, their families, and their coach, shadowing them through an Arctic winter of 50-below-zero temperatures and near-round-the-clock darkness as the Eagles crisscross Alaska in pursuit of their - and their village’s - dream.

Barcelona and Real Madrid: two of the most powerful and popular clubs in world football, and one of the world's most bitter sporting rivalries. Going far beyond the boundaries of just sport alone, this is a rivalry at the heart of Spanish life, taking in politics and culture and splitting a country in two. El Clasico gets to the heart of that rivalry, investigating the intrigue, the larger-than-life characters, the key flashpoints and their consequences.

The typical female sports fan remains very different from her male counterparts. In their insightful and engaging book, Sportista, Andrei S. Markovits and Emily Albertson examine the significant ways many women have become fully conversant with sports - acquiring a knowledge of and passion for them as a way of forging identities that until recently were quite alien to women.

For centuries, the West has produced stories about the future in which humans use advanced science and technology to transform the Earth. Michael Rawson uses a wide range of works that include Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, the science fiction novels of Jules Verne, and even the speculations of think tanks like the RAND Corporation to reveal the environmental paradox at the heart of these narratives: the single-minded expectation of unlimited growth on a finite planet.

In 2016, amid an epidemic of police shootings of African Americans, the celebrated NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began a series of quiet protests on the field, refusing to stand during the US national anthem. By "taking a knee", Kaepernick bravely joined a long tradition of American athletes making powerful political statements. This time, however, Kaepernick's simple act spread like wildfire throughout American society, becoming the preeminent symbol of resistance to America's persistent racial inequality.

This year's favored team to win is Annuna, with their S-ranked captain and star player Giant Slayer. Disaster strikes when Giant Slayer is injured and put out for the rest of the season. Leadership of the team falls to the militaristic and cruel vice-captain, Harpy. To complicate matters, the team has to deal with an arrogant new player, dark secrets, and their greatest rival team, Thunder. Can Harpy lead Annuna to the A-rank championship and victory, or will they tear each other apart before the games get the chance? Find out in the first installment of Battle Games!

生命とは、進化とは、遺伝とは、死とは、多様性とは、生き延びるために必要な生存戦略とは――。

人類は今、新たな進化の段階に突入している。産業革命は社会を変えたが、IT革命は人間の心を変えようとしているのだ。

Borja Bauzá no escribe de oídas. Él mismo formó parte de una banda ultra en su juventud, y para escribir este libro ha pasado años recorriendo España de norte a sur y de este a oeste para entrevistarse con docenas de hooligans de todas las aficiones y de todas las ideologías. Este no es un libro denuncia ni un libro blanqueador. Es una enciclopedia sociológica, cultural y política de un fenómeno de masas desde sus orígenes en los años 70 hasta el día de hoy, pasando por el caos de los años 80, el salvajismo de los años 90 y la sofisticación que llegó a partir del 2000 con las nuevas tecnologías.

Ahmed und Hussen Chaer sind Wrestling-Stars - und doch ganz anders als die meisten Erfolgssportler. Die Flucht des Vaters aus dem Libanon, eine Kindheit im Kreuzberger Hinterhaus, ihr Einsatz gegen Vorurteile und Ausgrenzung: All das hat die unzertrennlichen Brüder geprägt - und macht sie zu sympathischen Streitern für eine bessere Welt.

On the street, every ballplayer has a story. Onaje X. O. Woodbine, a former streetball player who became an all-star Ivy Leaguer, brings the sights and sounds, hopes and dreams of street basketball to life. He shows that big games have a trickster figure and a master of Black talk whose commentary interprets the game for audiences. The beats of hip-hop and reggae make up the soundtrack, and the ballplayers are half men, half heroes, defying the ghetto's limitations with their flights to the basket.

A history of the activism and achievement of African American athletes from Jesse Owens to Serena Williams to Colin Kaepernick, who advanced the cause of social justice through their outspokenness, commitment, and integrity. Muhammad Ali refused to fight in a war he believed was immoral. Wilma Rudolph retired from track and field to campaign for civil rights. Taking a Knee, Taking a Stand tells their stories and the stories of other prominent African American male and female athletes who often risked their careers to fight racial discrimination and promote social justice.

Following a year of record numbers of shark attacks, Sharks Never Sleep takes us around the world to meet shark-attack survivors, shark lovers and shark hunters, who tell us of the primal fear of being eaten alive by a wild animal, the unimaginable grief of losing a loved one and extraordinary stories of encounters with sharks.