Overview
- Authors:
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James Stout
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San Diego Mesa College, San Diego, USA
- The first significant text examining the 1936 Popular Olympics in the English language
- Examines poster art, Catalan and Spanish Archives, and collections of documents in the UK and the USA, to trace the promotion and participation of the games as well as their international funding
- Responds to a growing interest in sports history as well as in Catalan independence and anti-fascism
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Back Matter
Pages 129-136
About this book
This book deals with the events leading up to the 1936 Popular Olympics which would have united the Popular Front in opposition to the Berlin Olympics. It also discusses the days after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War which began on the same day the games were due to start. Using a variety of primary and secondary sources, the book traces the biographies of several Popular Olympians who would go on to volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. The book also examines the planned events and locations for the Popular Olympics as well as the international funding that the games secured. The book argues that the events were a departure from Workers’ Sport as well as the IOC’s Olympic games and represented an important cultural manifestation of the Popular Front.
Reviews
“Stout’s book, ostensibly the tale of a little-known and never-celebrated sporting event prevented and overshadowed by the ultimately successful military uprising that took place in Spain on 18 July 1936, is in fact an excellent case study of a host of historical – but also current – phenomena. These include: bureaucratic short-sightedness in the face of insidiously advancing fascism; the power of a mobilized Left to accomplish impressive feats of international anti-fascist coordination; regionalisms that continue to challenge unitary models of Spanish nationhood; and political instrumentalizations of sport. In our present age of Russian athletic doping; of multi-billion-dollar sports merchandise industries and the use of products like football shirts to make political statements ranging from representation of mid-2000s England as progressively multicultural to the existence of discrete Catalan and Tibetan national identities; and of rising support for and visibility of far-right political movements across Europe and in the United States; Stout’s history of the 1936 Popular Olympics is patently highly relevant and tells a surprisingly big story.” (Alejandro J. Gómez del Moral, University Lecturer, University of Helsinki)
Authors and Affiliations
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San Diego Mesa College, San Diego, USA
James Stout
About the author
James E Stout, PhD, is an Adjunct Professor of World History at San Diego Mesa College, USA. His work focuses on sport and identity in Catalonia. He also writes articles for several outdoor publications and runs a not for profit organization dedicated to helping indigenous people in the USA through peer mentored exercise programs.
