Douglas Hartmann

Ever since 1968 a single iconic image of race in American sport has remained indelibly etched on our collective memory: sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos accepting medals at the Mexico City Olympics with their black-gloved fists raised and heads bowed. But what inspired their protest? What happened after they stepped down from the podium? And how did their gesture impact racial inequalities? Drawing on extensive archival research and newly gathered oral histories, Douglas Hartmann sets out to answer these questions, reconsidering this pivotal event in the history of American sport. He places Smith and Carlos within the broader context of the civil rights movement and the controversial revolt of the black athlete. Although the movement drew widespread criticism, it also led to fundamental reforms in the organizational structure of American amateur athletics. Moving from historical narrative to cultural analysis, Hartmann explores what we can learn about the complex relations between race and sport in contemporary America from this episode and its aftermath.

The 1968 Olympic Protests and Their Aftermath

Race, Culture, and the Revolt of the Black Athlete

Christopher Uggen

A provocative and useful introduction to all the different kinds of sociological research and writing that falls under the category of "cultural."

Getting Culture

Sport-based intervention programs designed to divert poor minority youth from gangs and crime got their start with the Midnight Basketball initiatives of the late 1980s. Hartmann explains the mystery of why a basketball- based program became popular as a solution to problems of crime and poverty in dozens of American cities. In part, then, this book is a history, but also a cultural analysis to explain the prominence of these programs at first (and then so controversial later on), and how they were expanded upon in the years that followed. In fact, it was in Chicagohome of Michael Jordan and the Bullsthat Midnight Basketball first achieved prominence. Under the direction of former Congressman Jack Kemp and the Chicago Housing Authority, two leagues were organized, in Rockwell Gardens and the Henry Horner Homes. To understand why the program caught on, Hartmann explores the policy transformations of the period (such as the new penology and neoliberal paternalism), and, at length, he gets into the cultural tensions and institutional realities that shaped this program and the entire field of sport-based social policy. In the end, Midnight Basketball, Race, and Neoliberal Social Policy provides a one-of-a-kind view of the culture of sport and race in America, and neoliberal policy broadly conceived."

Race, Sports, and Neoliberal Social Policy

Midnight Basketball

Assembling the most provocative, productive new thinking on race in one volume.

Color Lines and Racial Angles

The second volume in this series tackles crime and punishment. As in the first volume, the chapters are organized into three main sections. “Core Contributions” exemplifies how sociologists and other social scientists think about otherwise familiar phenomena like crime, incarceration, and suicide. Chapters in the “Cultural Contexts” section engage crime in cultural realms—from politics to families to international crime and justice—that are often ignored or taken for granted among laypeople or in other social science disciplines. Finally, the “Critical Takes” chapters provide sociological commentary, perspective, and reflections on crime and its control.

Crime and the Punished

Stephen Cornell

"This book is very well written and clearly organized throughout. It is pitched at upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level race and ethnicity students...in sum, this is an important book, highly recommended to students and faculty alike. The authors draw extensively from classic and contemporary sociological theory throughout the text and maintain a transnational focus in each and every chapter." —TEACHING SOCIOLOGY Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World, Second Edition uses examples and extended case studies from all over the world to craft a compelling, even-handed account of the power and persistence of ethnicity and race in the contemporary world. Known for its conceptual clarity, world-historical scope, and fair-minded treatment of these oft controversial topics, this updated and expanded edition retains all of the core elements and constructionist insights of the original.

Douglas Hartmann

Books

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