US Imperialism, sport, and “the most famous soldier in the war”

Miller, T. (2013) US Imperialism, sport, and “the most famous soldier in the war”. In: Andrews, D.L. and Carrinton, B., (eds.) A Companion to Sport. Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 229-245.

Abstract

This chapter focuses on both political economic and symbolic elements in Yanqui sport, in keeping with the complexities of US imperialism. It applies the new international division of cultural labor (NICL) to US professional sports and the bourgeois media utilizing a global labor pool and audience to modulate an oversupplied local market where players are too wealthy and crowds too poor to permit the restless drive to growth that both fuels and frustrates capitalism. The chapter then shifts to ideological analysis, via a case study of how sport signifies within the United States in the context of nationalism and imperial warfare, looking at the circumstances surrounding the life, death, and legacy of college and National Football League (NFL) player and military recruit Pat Tillman. Finally, the chapter offers a realistic account of a polyvalent phenomenon and some valuable tools for engaging and dismantling imperial practice.

Item Type:	Book Chapter
Publisher:	Wiley-Blackwell
Copyright:	© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/27173

Item Control Page