From the author Robert Lipsyte calls the best young sportswriter in America, a rollicking, rebellious, myth-busting history of sports in America that puts politics in the ring with pop culture

In this long-waited book from the rising superstar of sportswriting, whose blog Edge of Sports is read each week by thousands of people across the country, Dave Zirin offers a riotously entertaining chronicle of larger-than-life sporting characters and dramatic contests and what amounts to an alternative history of the United States as seen through the games its people played. Through Zirin's eyes, sports are never mere games, but a reflection of--and spur toward--the political conflicts that shape American society.

Half a century before Jackie Robinson was born, the black ballplayer Moses Fleetwood Walker brandished a revolver to keep racist fans at bay, then took his regular place in the lineup. In the midst of the Depression, when almost no black athletes were allowed on the U.S. Olympic team, athletes held a Counter Olympics where a third of the participants were African American.

A People's History of Sports in the United States is replete with surprises for seasoned sports fans, while anyone interested in history will be amazed by the connections Zirin draws between politics and pop flies. As Jeff Chang, author of Can't Stop Won't Stop, puts it, After you read him, you'll never see sports the same way again.

Jim Brown is recognized as perhaps the greatest football player to ever live. But his phenomenal nine-year career with the Cleveland Browns is only part of his remarkable story, the opening salvo to a much more sprawling epic. Brown parlayed his athletic fame into stardom in Hollywood, where it was thought that he could become the black John Wayne. He was an outspoken Black Power icon in the 1960s, and he formed Black Economic Unions to challenge racism in the business world. For this and for his decades of work as a truce negotiator with street gangs, Brown--along with such figures as Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, and Billie Jean King--is revered as a socially conscious athlete.

On the most hypermasculine cultural canvases of the United States--NFL football, the Black Power movement, Hollywood's blaxploitation films, gang intervention both inside and outside prison walls--Jim Brown has made his mark. Yet in the landscape of the most toxic expression of what makes a man--numerous accusations of violence against women--he has left a jagged mark as well.

Dave Zirin's book redefines an American icon, and not always in a flattering light. At eighty-one years old, Brown continues to speak out and look for fights. His recent public support of Donald Trump and criticism of Colin Kaepernick are just the latest examples of someone who seems restless if he is not in conflict. Jim Brown is a raw and thrilling account of Brown's remarkable life and a must-read for sports fans and students of the black freedom struggle.

Zirin is America's best sportswriter.--Lee Ballinger, Rock and Rap Confidential

Zirin is one of the brightest, most audacious voices I can remember on the sportswriting scene, and my memory goes back to the 1920s.--Lester Rodney, N.Y. Daily Worker sports editor, 1936-1958

Zirin has an amazing talent for covering the sports and politics beat. Ranging like a great shortstop, he scoops up everything! He profiles the courageous and inspiring athletes who are standing up for peace and civil liberties in this repressive age. A must read!--Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive

This is cutting-edge analysis delivered with wit and compassion.--Mike Marqusee, author, Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties

Here Edgeofsports.com sportswriter Dave Zirin shows how sports express the worst, as well as the most creative and exciting, features of American society.

Zirin explores how Janet Jackson's Super Bowl flash-time show exposed more than a breast, why the labor movement has everything to learn from sports unions and why a new generation of athletes is no longer content to play one game at a time and is starting to get political.

What's My Name, Fool! draws on original interviews with former heavyweight champ George Foreman, Olympian and black power saluter John Carlos, NBA basketball player and anti-death penalty activist Etan Thomas, antiwar women's college hoopster Toni Smith, Olympic Project for Human Rights leader Lee Evans and many others.

Popular sportswriter and commentator Dave Zirin is editor of The Prince George's Post (Maryland) and writes the weekly column Edge of Sports (edgeofsports.com). He is a senior writer at basketball.com. Zirin's writing has also appeared in The Source, Common Dreams, College Sporting News, CounterPunch, Alternet, International Socialist Review, Black Sports Network, War Times, San Francisco Bay View and Z Magazine.

Riveting and inspiring first-person stories of how taking a knee triggered an awakening in sports, from the celebrated sportswriter

The Kaepernick Effect reveals that Colin Kaepernick's story is bigger than one athlete. With profiles of courage that leap off the page, Zirin uncovers a whole national movement of citizen-athletes fighting for racial justice. --Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist

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 U.S. 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.

Critically acclaimed sports journalist and author of A People's History of Sports in the United States, Dave Zirin chronicles the Kaepernick effect for the first time, through interviews with a broad cross-section of professional athletes across many different sports, college stars and high-powered athletic directors, and high school athletes and coaches. In each case, he uncovers the fascinating explanations and motivations behind a mass political movement in sports, through deeply personal and inspiring accounts of risk-taking, activism, and courage both on and off the field.

A book about the politics of sport, and the impact of sports on politics, The Kaepernick Effect is for anyone seeking to understand an essential dimension of the new movement for racial justice in America.

Riveting and inspiring first-person stories of how taking a knee triggered a political awakening among athletes of all ages and levels, from the celebrated sportswriter

With profiles of courage that leap of the page, Zirin uncovers a whole national movement of citizen-athletes fighting for racial justice.
--Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning

Hailed by Publishers Weekly in a starred review as an enthralling look at the impact of peaceful protest by sports figures at the high school, college, and professional levels, The Kaepernick Effect explores the story of how quarterback Colin Kaepernick's simple act of taking a knee spread like wildfire throughout American society, becoming the preeminent public symbol of resistance to America's persistent racial inequality.

In this powerful book, critically acclaimed sports journalist and author Dave Zirin chronicles the Kaepernick effect for the first time, through a riveting collection of first-person stories (The Nation) from high school athletes and coaches, college stars and high-powered athletic directors, and professional athletes across many different sports--from Megan Rapinoe to Michael Bennett. In each case, he uncovers the fascinating explanations and motivations behind what became a mass political movement in sports.

Necessary reading for all, especially those who want to make a difference in promoting social justice, equity, and inclusion, and end police brutality (Library Journal, starred review), The Kaepernick Effect is for anyone seeking to get involved in the new movement for racial justice in America: Take a knee, everyone, and start a revolution (Kirkus Reviews).

People think speaking truth to power is easy, but if it was easy everyone would do it. This book does it. . . . It speaks truth to the powers that be, from Brazil to the US to FIFA to the IOC. It hits you like an uppercut that rattles your brain and sets it straight. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.--John Carlos, 1968 Olympic medalist

The people of Brazil celebrated when they learned that in the space of two years their country would host the world's two largest sporting events: the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. Now they are protesting in numbers the country hasn't seen in decades.

Dave Zirin relies on fieldwork from the most dangerous corners of Rio to the halls of power in Washington, DC, exposing how sports and politics have collided in spectacular fashion. One of the Boston Globe's Best Sports Books of 2014, this edition has been newly updated to assess the final tally of debt and displacement that accompanied the 2014 World Cup, eyewitness accounts of the militarized police crackdown, and new reporting on the pre-Olympic plans furthering immiseration in cities across Brazil.

Dave Zirin is sports correspondent for the Nation magazine and the author of nine books on the intersection of sports and politics. Named one of UTNE Reader's 50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World, Zirin is a frequent guest on MSNBC, ESPN, and Democracy Now! He also hosts his own weekly Sirius XM show, Edge of Sports Radio.

Sportscaster Howard Cosell dubbed it rule number one of the jockocracy sports and politics just don't mix. But in truth, some of our most important debates about class, race, religion, sex, and the raw quest for political power are played out both on and off the field. From the NFL lockout and the role of soccer in the Arab Spring to the Penn State sexual abuse scandals and Tim Tebow's on-field genuflections, this timely and hard-hitting new book from the conscience of American sports writing offers new insights and analysis of headline-grabbing sports controversies (The Washington Post).

It explores the shady side of the NCAA; the explosive 2011 MLB All-Star Game; and why the Dodgers crashed and burned. It covers the fascinating struggles of gay and lesbian athletes to gain acceptance, female athletes to be more than sex symbols, and athletes everywhere to assert their collective bargaining rights as union members. Dave Zirin also illustrates the ways that athletes are once again using their exalted platforms to speak out and reclaim sports from the corporate interests that have taken it hostage. In Game Over, he cheers the victories--but also reflects on how far we have yet to go.

A book that no thinking sports fan can afford to miss. --Jonathan Mahler, author of Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning

Dave Zirin is the best young sportswriter in America.--Robert Lipsyte

This much-anticipated sequel to What's My Name, Fool? by acclaimed commentator Dave Zirin breaks new ground in sports writing, looking at the controversies and trends now shaping sports in the United States--and abroad. Features chapters such as Barry Bonds is Gonna Git Your Mama: The Last Word on Steroids, Pro Basketball and the Two Souls of Hip-Hop, An Icon's Redemption: The Great Roberto Clemente, and Beisbol: How the Major Leagues Eat Their Young.

Zirin's commentary is always insightful, never predictable.

Dave Zirin is the author of the widely acclaimed book What's My Name, Fool? (Haymarket Books) and writes the weekly column Edge of Sports (edgeofsports.com). He writes a regular column for The Nation and Slam magazine and has appeared as a sports commentator on ESPN TV and radio, CBNC, WNBC, Democracy Now!, Air America, Radio Nation, and Pacifica.

Chuck D redefined rap music and hip-hop culture as leader and co-founder of the legendary rap group Public Enemy. Spike Lee calls him one of the most politically and socially conscious artists of any generation. He co-hosts a weekly radio show on Air America.

When attending a baseball game becomes a luxury reserved for the wealthy few and cities build multi-million dollar stadiums while letting their bridges crumble, the price of sports in this country demands reassessment. Bad Sports cuts through the hype and bombast to give us a portrait of sports ownership as irresponsible as the financial shenanigans that drove the nation to the edge of economic ruin. From the outrageous use of public funds for stadium construction to the use of these spaces for religious and political platforms, Dave Zirin raises vital questions about misplaced priorities and moral abdications among the politicians we elect and the owners of the teams we root for.

Speaking out in clear and passionate terms for the rights of any taxpayer and sports fan, Zirin returns America's favorite pastimes back to where they belong--in the open and for the people.