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WMU professor co-writes book on American sport history

Aug. 22, 2008

KALAMAZOO--A professor at Western Michigan University is one of three authors of a new book on American sport history.

Dr. Linda J. Borish, associate professor of history, co-wrote the book "Sports in American History: From Colonization to Globalization," which journeys from early America to the present to give readers a compelling grasp of the historical evolution of American sporting practices. The text provides students with insights that will allow them to develop new and alternative perspectives, examine sport as a social and cultural phenomenon, generate a better understanding of current sport practices and consider future developments in sport in American life.

Borish is executive producer and historian of the recent documentary film "Jewish Women in American Sport: Settlement Houses to the Olympics" and has received numerous research grants related to American women and sport history. The co-authors are Dr. Gerald R. Gems, international scholar and author and professor of health and physical education at North Central College, and Dr. Gertrud Pfister, professor at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

Published and released this month by Human Kinetics, which produces informational and educational products in the physical activity and health fields, the expansive text is a comprehensive resource on sport history, providing coverage of sport by historical periods, from the indigenous tribes of pre-modern America through colonial societies to the status of sport in the United States today.

Unlike other sport history texts, it examines how women, minorities and ethnic and religious groups influenced U.S. sporting culture, giving the reader a broader knowledge of the complexities of sport, health and play in the American experience and how historical factors--gender, ethnicity, race and religion--provide a more complete understanding of sports in American history.

To order or for more information, visit humankinetics.com.

Media contact: Mark Schwerin, (269) 387-8400, mark.schwerin@wmich.edu

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