Globetrotting

African American Athletes and Cold War Politics

Damion L. Thomas (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

232 Seiten

2017
University of Illinois Press (Verlag)
978-0-252-08263-4 (ISBN)

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Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union deplored the treatment of African Americans by the U.S. government as proof of hypocrisy in the American promises of freedom and equality. This probing history examines government attempts to manipulate international perceptions of U.S. race relations during the Cold War by sending African American athletes abroad on goodwill tours and in international competitions as cultural ambassadors and visible symbols of American values. Damion L. Thomas follows the State Department's efforts from 1945 to 1968 to showcase prosperous African American athletes including Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, and the Harlem Globetrotters as the preeminent citizens of the African Diaspora rather than as victims of racial oppression. With athletes in baseball, track and field, and basketball, the government relied on figures whose fame carried the desired message to countries where English was little understood. However, eventually African American athletes began to provide counter-narratives to State Department claims of American exceptionalism, most notably with Tommie Smith and John Carlos's famous black power salute at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.

Damion L. Thomas is Museum Curator of Sports at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Erscheinungsdatum	09.03.2017
Reihe/Serie	Sport and Society
Verlagsort	Baltimore
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	286 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport
	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Zeitgeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie ► Volkskunde
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Europäische / Internationale Politik
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Vergleichende Politikwissenschaften
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
	Weitere Fachgebiete ► Sportwissenschaft
ISBN-10	0-252-08263-X / 025208263X
ISBN-13	978-0-252-08263-4 / 9780252082634
Zustand	Neuware