From Ritual to Record: The Nature of Modern Sports
A pioneering work in a field remarkably little touched... For any future writer about the philosophy or the sociology of sport in general, this book will be required reading.(Julian SymonsTimes Literary Supplement)The chief advantage that Guttmann has over other sports theoreticians is a willingness to employ the techniques of modern rhetoric in creating some order out of the ideological confusion now swirling around his subject. He is a definer, a synthesizer, a causal analyst, as well as an arguer and a counter-arguer.(Virginia Quarterly)[Guttmann's] lucid, original, stimulating, blessedly jargon-free book does something to lighten our darkness. His pleasant, incisive style reflects a mind uncluttered by prejudice or ideology.(Brian GlanvilleLondon Sunday Times)