Few would deny America's devotion to sports; however, many would gloss over it as all of a piece. To do that, as William J. Baker shows us, is to miss the fascinating variety of experiences at the intersection of sports and religion - and the ramifications of such on a national citizenry defined, as Baker writes, "by the team they cheer on Saturday and the church they attend on Sunday."
Like no other nation on earth, Americans eagerly blend their religion and sports. This book traces this dynamic relationship from the Puritan condemnation of games as sinful in the seventeenth century to the near deification of athletic contests in our own day.
Born the tenth child of a poor Southern sharecropper, Jesse Owens would nevertheless go on to win an unprecedented four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. This biography of Owens details the successes and failures of this complex and troubled but ultimately indomitable figure who transcended his own athleticism and became an American icon.
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