Showing titles in Sociology of Sports

‘Powerful and thoughtful’ Don McRae, Guardian ‘A fascinating and incredibly honest insight into the pressurised life of an elite athlete, on and off the pitch’ Piers Morgan RAW. REVEALING. REFLECTIVE. The candid autobiography. This audio edition includes an exclusive in-conversation...

Never have the best sportspeople seemed so far removed from the rest of us. So how are these extraordinary athletes made and what do their achievements tell us about success? The Best reveals how the most incredible sportspeople in the world got that way. It is a unique look at the path to sporting greatness. This is a story of origins, training, luck and serendipity, as well as of sports science and cutting-edge technology. 

Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe share their diaries from three incident-filled Grand Tours, the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España. These take listeners behind the scenes and explore the culture and landscape as well as the racing while the ‘Lionel of Flanders’, complete with beer recommendations, does the same for the Classics in Belgium.

AN EXPLOSIVE AND REVELATORY PORTRAIT REPORTED FROM DEEP BEHIND THE SCENES OF BIG-TIME NCAA COLLEGE FOOTBALL: THE PASSION, THE THRILLING ACTION—AND THE SHOCKING REALITIES THAT LIE BENEATH THIS COLOSSAL, MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR BUSINESS COLLEGE FOOTBALL has never been more popular—or more...

Putting the games in the context of Rome's rise and dramatic fall, Mannix captures all the history, planning, and savage pageantry that went into creating the first spectator sports. But as Rome begin to fall in the fifth century, so did the games, devolving into nothing more than pointless massacres. In the end, millions of humans and animals were sacrificed in barbaric displays. What were once ceremonies given in honor of gods met an inglorious fate, yet they still captivate the imagination of people today.

Brought to you by Penguin. A BBC Arts & The Reading Agency's Big Sporting Read selection A hilarious, heartfelt, nostalgia-infused story of sport, loss and the journey of a lifetime. After the sudden death of his older brother, Dan, Jon Harvey turned to the thing that had provided their...

The Premier League is the most watched sports league in the world, broadcast into 188 countries and watched by 3.2 billion people worldwide. It revolutionised football, transforming the beautiful game into a multi-billion-pound business and making its biggest stars millionaires. Fever Pitch tells the inside story of the formation of the league, from the early discussions with Rupert Murdoch about how Sky could be at the heart of this new league, to the bitter rivalries and radical new managers who changed the face of football forever.

When a mixed martial arts (MMA) gym moves in across the street from his office, Jonathan Gottschall sees a challenge and an opportunity. Pushing 40, out of shape, and disenchanted with his job as an adjunct English professor, part of him yearns to cross the street and join up. The other part is terrified.

The Sports Book Award-winning true story of the beautiful game. 'The closest thing to a spokesman there is for English football.' Sunday Times It's time to fix football . . . Football is the people's game. A sport accessible to everyone and enjoyed by millions around the world. But football is...

From ESPN reporter Marc Raimondi comes a compelling, gripping narrative history of professional wrestling’s legendary faction, The NWO (New World Order), from their inception in 1996 to their influence on American pop culture today. In 1996, professional wrestling was one of the most watched...

For the past year, John U. Bacon has received unprecedented access to Jim Harbaugh’s University of Michigan football team: coaches, players, and staffers, in closed-door meetings, locker rooms, meals, and classes. Overtime captures this storied program at the crossroads, as the sport’s...

You are cordially invited to join Michael Bamberger on a year-long golfing adventure—playing alongside the pros of the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour, LIV Golf, and more—as he seeks to unlock golf’s most stubborn secrets in various and surprising ways, all in the name of…improvement! Nearly...

A brilliant and entertaining deconstruction of the most popular sport in the world, just in time for the 2026 World Cup in North America, from the bestselling author of How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius In How to Watch Soccer Like a Genius, Nick Greene calls on a turf manager, an expert on...

Booed by crowds. Sworn at by players. Spat on from the stands. Threatened, accused, hated. Welcome to the world of football refereeing. We watch referees every week. But almost none of us understand what the job really demands. In this meticulously reported book, William Ralston goes deep inside...

Are you ready to join the club? If your desire is to build a stronger and well-chiseled body naturally without steroids; then this is the book for you! It will not only enable you shape the body of your dreams, but it will also empower you to stay the course.

Long-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, 2016. This audio edition is read by the author, Anna Kessel. For too long society has led us to believe that women and sport don't mix. While perspiration and 'fitspiration' have never been so hot, sport continues to be stubbornly...

A massive audience in sitting rooms, parks and pubs watched England in the 2018 World Cup. Yet as Duncan Hamilton demonstrates with style, insight and wit in Going to the Match, watching on TV is no substitute for being there. Hamilton embarks on a richly entertaining, exquisitely crafted journey through football. Glory game or grass roots, England v Slovenia or Guiseley v Hartlepool, he delves beneath the action to illuminate the stories which make the sport endlessly compelling.

Whether you’re a longtime fan or new to Formula 1 racing and obsessed with Netflix’s Drive to Survive, the Red Flags team—the #1 American F1 podcast—invites listeners into an irreverent, hilarious romp through the wild world of Formula 1. From epic on-track battles to gloriously delulu...

The Secret Race is a definitive look at the world of professional cycling—and the doping issue surrounding this sport and its most iconic rider, Lance Armstrong—by former Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton and New York Times bestselling author Daniel Coyle. Over the course of two years...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A “meticulously documented and endlessly chilling” (The New York Times) exploration of the NFL’s decades-long attempt to deny and cover up mounting evidence connecting brain damage from football with CTE. “A first-rate piece of reporting [that] adds crucial...