Rivers Gambrell – författare

Explores the relationship between US presidents, sport and athleticism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuriesOffers an up-to-date overview of the developing and symbiotic relationship between the nation's Commander in Chief and some of the nation's most popular pastimesTraces the connection of sports and the presidency from Theodore Roosevelt to Donald TrumpAnalyses the relationship between the presidency, sports, and individual athletes, including themes such as fandom, advocacy of sports, and active participationIncludes exciting new research from emerging scholars, alongside analysis from more established voices in the fieldThis book presents an overview of the symbiotic relationship between US presidents and some of the nation's most popular pastimes. Starting with Theodore Roosevelt's significant role in linking the presidency with advocacy of and active participation in sports, this book traces how occupants of the White House continued to develop these connections in various guises across the following century for both pleasure and political purposes.Split into three thematic sections, the book approaches the topic from different but related angles to create a multidimensional portrait of the evolving relationship among the US presidency, sports and individual athletes, from the dawn of the twentieth century through to the Trump administration.

Donald Trump's love of golf adds him to a long line of presidents who have a close association with sports. Indeed, golf might just be the leading presidential pastime, ever since William Howard Taft was photographed strutting the links against the advice of his predecessor Theodore Roosevelt. And it was Roosevelt, more than any president, who set the standard for linking the nation's top job to its favourite physical pastimes. Starting with Roosevelt's significant role in linking the presidency with fandom, advocacy of, and active participation in sports, this volume traces how occupants of the White House continued to develop these connections in various guises across the following century. Though historians have certainly not ignored such associations, the variety of case studies represented here provides a wider and more multidisciplinary selection of standpoints from which to assess the interactions between sports and the presidency than ever before.