Steve Craig - Böcker

Based on reports from 19th century explorers, museum artifacts, and other historical documents, the rules, equipment, and diagrams as they are currently understood are provided here for readers, along with suggestions for adapting these sports and games for modern times. Sports enthusiasts and students will find this volume a valuable resource for discovering the earliest beginnings of our modern-day sports.Divided according to seven geopolitical regions of the world, Sports and Games of the Ancients describes the sports, games, and play of our earliest ancestors. Their need for survival in often hostile conditions enable them to develop skills such as long distance running or archery, and these skills were then practiced in friendly competitions that evolved into our modern-day marathons and Olympic events. Covering such games as Africa's mancala and senet, the martial arts of Asia, the log run and Tejo of Latin America, and the boomerang and surfing of Oceania, this volume provides a solid picture of the sports and games of our ancient ancestors.

She can bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan, and please her man: The popular media influence perceptions of women and their role(s) in society. But what of men? Indeed, men and masculinity have been the norm, the yardstick against which women--and the women's movement--have been measured. Although the development of men's studies has gained momentum, little has been published that focuses on the media and their relationship to men as men. Men, Masculinity, and the Media addresses this shortcoming. Scholars from communication studies, sociology, social studies, humanities, and political science investigate past media research on men and masculinity. They also examine how the media serve to construct masculinities, how men and their relationships have been depicted, and how men respond to media images. From comic books and rock music to film and television, this ground-breaking volume scrutinizes the interrelationship among men, the media, and masculinity. ". . . ambitious in scope." --Journalism Quarterly "This volume, inaugurating Sage's Research on Men and Masculinity series, will be highly effective in mass media courses dealing with gender, an area where useful collections are sorely lacking. These essays vary in their degree of theoretical and methodological sophistication. Some will be sufficiently complex for graduate courses, while undergraduate students will appreciate others either for their discursive straightforwardness or for their grounding in cultural genres that undergraduates are seldom allowed to study, from sports coverage to heavy metal music. And since, among them, these essays cover such a large territory, the composite bibliography at the end will well serve those interested in further reading and research." --Journal of Communication "This volume is both evenly written and exceptionally readable. Key concepts are presented clearly, but they are not overly simplified. This book's strong conceptual and empirical foundation, in conjunction with the sophistication of its content, make the text ideal for graduate and advanced graduate students. Scholars will find [the book] a valuable reference." --Communication Quarterly "Men, Masculinity, and the Media is a welcome corrective. Collected here are articles that range widely in topic as well as in theoretical and analytical complexity, from straightforward content analyses of images of masculinity in comic books to feminist poststructuralist explorations of the male gaze in prime-time television programming. The strength of the volume is in both the range of theoretical orientations included and the representation of scholars from a variety of disciplines including sociology, communications, political science, and the humanities." --American Journal of Sociology "A valuable and needed anthology which investigates the many, intricate ways in which mass media contribute to social construction of masculinity in western, industrialized countries. . . . An excellent reference section is included." --Communication Booknotes ". . . Steve Craig's volume offers a comprehensive overview of recent research on masculinity and the media. It is accessible for both undergraduate and graduate students, and lends itself well to classroom teaching. The book also includes an extensive bibliography. Located at the intersection of communications and gender studies, Men, Masculinity, and the Media will further our understandings of the ways in which gender is both reproduced and contested. The collection will also stimulate further research in the field." --Canadian Journal of Communication

In the 1920s, the USDA asked farmers about the impact the new medium of radio was having on their lives. One farmer summed it up this way: 'Radio brought me out of the dark'. ""Out of the Dark"" is a study of radio's impact on rural America in the three decades between its inception and the arrival of television. The coming of radio broadcasting had a profound impact on the lives of many Americans, but none more so than those who lived in rural America. Radio provided isolated families with something they had never known before - an instantaneous connection with news, entertainment, and the rapidly evolving lifestyles and mores of the entire nation. Drawing upon both new historical sources and contemporary scholarship, ""Out of the Dark"" presents a comprehensive picture of rural radio and its audience in the United States during the three decades when its influence was at its peak. This study documents the social changes radio helped bring about, such as the effects of advertising and entertainment in creating a more uniform set of values across the nation and, consequently, a stronger national identity. ""Out of the Dark"" also addresses the political and economic impact the rural audience had on the development of the broadcasting industry and its regulation; the role played by the USDA in the promotion and development of rural radio; and an analysis of how radio entertainment and advertising contributed to the growing demand for consumer goods among rural families, thus speeding their entry into the modern American lifestyle.