The Global History of Sport in the Cold War

FAIN: RZ-51658-14

Regents of the University of California, San Diego (La Jolla, CA 92093-0013)
Robert S. Edelman (Project Director: January 2014 to December 2019)
Christopher Young (Co Project Director: January 2014 to December 2019)

Three international scholarly workshops over a three-year period addressing the topic of politics and sport during the Cold War, as well as preparation of the resulting papers and associated materials for publication through two print volumes and an open-access website. (36 months)

Sport has long been linked with politics, but never more so than during the Cold War. In this highly precarious time, nations and peoples around the world used sport to promote their political, social, and economic development. The media promoted mega-events between capitalist and Communist athletes as surrogates for diplomatic and military tension. Yet, for all its obvious ideological freighting, sport in this period reflected a complex integration of commerce, celebrity, trans-regional and trans-national fan loyalties. It revealed different and shifting notions of race, class and gender (often within a single nation), and the uneasy mapping of sports and geopolitical allegiances could even make bitter rivals of strategic partners.

Associated Products

The Global History of Cold War (Web Resource)
Title: The Global History of Cold War
Author: Robert Edelman
Abstract: In association with the Cold War International History Project and supported by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a new collaborative project has been launched on the cultural, social and political significance of sport in the Cold War.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/program/cold-war-international-history-project.

The Whole World Was Watching: Sport in the Cold War (Book)
Title: The Whole World Was Watching: Sport in the Cold War
Editor: Robert Edelman
Editor: Christopher Young
Abstract: None available.
Year: 2019
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Type: Edited Volume

Prizes

2021 Anthologies Award
Date: 5/29/2021
Organization: North American Society for Sport History

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