Legends Never Die: Athletes and their Afterlives in Modern America

Author:   Richard Ian Kimball
Publisher:   Syracuse University Press
ISBN:  

9780815610861


Pages:   216
Publication Date:   30 April 2017
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
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Legends Never Die: Athletes and their Afterlives in Modern America


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Overview

With every touchdown, home run, and three-pointer, star athletes represent an American dream that only an elite group blessed with natural talent can achieve. However, Kimball concentrates on what happens once these modern warriors meet their untimely demise. As athletes die, legends rise in their place. The premature deaths of celebrated players not only capture and immortalize their physical superiority, but also jolt their fans with an unanticipated intensity. These athletes escape the inevitability of aging and decline of skill, with only the prime of their youth left to be remembered. But early mortality alone does not transform athletes into immortals. The living ultimately gain the power to construct the legacies of their fallen heroes. In Legends Never Die, Kimball explores the public myths and representations that surround a wide range of athletes, from Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio to Dale Earnhardt and Bonnie McCarroll. Kimball delves deeper than just the cultural significance of sports and its players; he examines how each athlete’s narrative is shaped by gender relations, religion, and politics in contemporary America. In looking at how Americans react to the tragic deaths of sports heroes, Kimball illuminates the important role sports play in US society and helps to explain why star athletes possess such cultural power.

Full Product Details

Author:   Richard Ian Kimball
Publisher:   Syracuse University Press
Imprint:   Syracuse University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.20cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.303kg
ISBN:  

9780815610861


ISBN 10:   0815610866
Pages:   216
Publication Date:   30 April 2017
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.
Language:   English

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Reviews

This is a fascinating and engaging study with relevance to the fields of sport studies, history, and American studies. . . . It will have great potential to attract a broader readership as well given its popular subject matter and readability.--Travis Vogan, author of Keepers of the Flame: NFL Films and the Rise of Sports Media Against all the laws of nature, certain sports heroes pull off the extraordinary stunt of running faster, jumping higher, hitting a ball farther after they die. In a word, athletes-think George Gipp (the Gipper), Lou Gehrig, Dale Earnhardt-achieve immortality, the same elusive stuff Achilles sought on the battlefields of Troy. How and why the immortalization process happens-media coverage, Hollywood, family activism-is the question this captivating project answers. Richard Ian Kimball spotlights Joe DiMaggio, Bonnie McCarroll, Benny Paret, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams and many other notables, all to uncover the mythmaking behind the legend.--Foreword Reviews Beautifully written, solidly researched, and a pleasure to read. Kimball tends to a difficult subject in a straightforward, conversational style and raises questions worthy of debate. . . .By examining reactions to the shocking deaths of American sports heroes, Kimball illuminates the role of sports in addressing wider social and cultural anxieties the fallen have left behind.--Journal of Sport History Focuses on case studies of famous athletes who died young, examining especially the post-World War II generation and arguing that 'modern sports help Americans to suppress the fears associated with their own mortality.' Chapters trace the afterlives of such athletes as Lou Gehrig, George Gipp, Bonnie McCarroll, Lane Frost, Benny Paret, Dale Earnhardt, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Ted Williams.--American Literature Kimball shows readers that sports are far more complex than just understanding the achievements of the athletes. . . . Recommended.--Choice


This is a fascinating and engaging study with relevance to the fields of sport studies, history, and American studies. . . . It will have great potential to attract a broader readership as well given its popular subject matter and readability.--Travis Vogan author of Keepers of the Flame: NFL Films and the Rise of Sports Media We re not a culture that deals well with death and the death of sport figures challenges us in ways that Kimball aptly explores, looking at well-known athletes and much less famous athletes. I ve always been fascinated by the road side memorials and other tangible ways we try to mark the spaces of an athletes passing, and now have Kimball s book as a guidebook to the cultural memories of America s grieving rituals and fascination with our too soon departed sport heroes.--Maureen Smith Professor, Department of Kinesiology, Sacramento State We're not a culture that deals well with death - and the death of sport figures challenges us in ways that Kimball aptly explores, looking at well-known athletes and much less famous athletes. I've always been fascinated by the road side memorials and other tangible ways we try to mark the spaces of an athletes' passing, and now have Kimball's book as a guidebook to the cultural memories of America's grieving rituals and fascination with our too soon departed sport heroes.--Maureen Smith Professor, Department of Kinesiology, Sacramento State Critically alert and well researched, Richard Kimball's Legends Never Die contemplates how American athletes, some of whom have become icons, have lived on in collective memories and, more important, the process of cultural meaning making. Like Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, Kimball's book helps readers understand processes of grieving and attempts to creating lasting legacies. In this case, for people as diverse as Notre Dame football star George Gipp and NASCAR's the Intimidator Dale Earnhardt. This is a thoughtful, engaging work of sport history that helps readers ponder much larger issues.--Daniel A. Nathan Professor and Chair Department of American Studies Skidmore College Against all the laws of nature, certain sports heroes pull off the extraordinary stunt of running faster, jumping higher, hitting a ball farther after they die. In a word, athletes-think George Gipp (the Gipper), Lou Gehrig, Dale Earnhardt-achieve immortality, the same elusive stuff Achilles sought on the battlefields of Troy. How and why the immortalization process happens-media coverage, Hollywood, family activism-is the question this captivating project answers. Richard Ian Kimball spotlights Joe DiMaggio, Bonnie McCarroll, Benny Paret, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams and many other notables, all to uncover the mythmaking behind the legend.--Matt Sutherland Foreword Reviews Kimball shows readers that sports are far more complex than just understanding the achievements of the athletes....Recommended.--L. A. Heaphy, Kent State University CHOICE Kimball explores the ways that sports and the ways we immortalize athletes who die unexpectedly serve as an escape that helps fans ponder their own mortality....Kimball's study is not just a study of sports and athletes. It is a study of mythmaking and its classical and contemporary manifestations.--Matt Teutsch, Auburn University ARETE In Legends Never Die, Richard Ian Kimball concisely and critically considers the invention of the afterlives of American athletic heroes. He exposes and examines the intentional choices, media technologies, historical circumstances, and ideological beliefs that influence popular memories of athletes who died before the end of their athletic careers.--Cat Ariail Sport In American History Blog Legends Never Die is a joy to read from its elegiac opening to its perceptive conclusion. Taking readers from the gridiron to the rodeo to the racetrack, he provides unexpected insights into how athletes who die too young become political, religious, and consumerist icons. Kimball's prose is as sprightly as it is thoughtful, and his treatment of figures ranging from George Gipp, to Lou Gehrig, to Achillies is impressive. A must for anyone who has ever shed a tear for a fallen sports hero.--David Welky professor of history at the University of Central Arkansas, author of A Wretched and Precarious Situation: In Search of the Last Arctic Frontier


Critically alert and well researched, Richard Kimball s Legends Never Die contemplates how American athletes, some of whom have become icons, have lived on in collective memories and, more important, the process of cultural meaning making. Like Drew Gilpin Faust s This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, Kimball s book helps readers understand processes of grieving and attempts to creating lasting legacies. In this case, for people as diverse as Notre Dame football star George Gibb and NASCAR s the Intimidator Dale Earnhardt. This is a thoughtful, engaging work of sport history that helps readers ponder much larger issues.--Daniel A. Nathan Professor and Chair Department of American Studies Skidmore College


This is a fascinating and engaging study with relevance to the fields of sport studies, history, and American studies. . . . It will have great potential to attract a broader readership as well given its popular subject matter and readability.--Travis Vogan author of Keepers of the Flame: NFL Films and the Rise of Sports Media Kimball shows readers that sports are far more complex than just understanding the achievements of the athletes. . . . Recommended.--Choice Focuses on case studies of famous athletes who died young, examining especially the post-World War II generation and arguing that 'modern sports help Americans to suppress the fears associated with their own mortality.' Chapters trace the afterlives of such athletes as Lou Gehrig, George Gipp, Bonnie McCarroll, Lane Frost, Benny Paret, Dale Earnhardt, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Ted Williams.--American Literature Against all the laws of nature, certain sports heroes pull off the extraordinary stunt of running faster, jumping higher, hitting a ball farther after they die. In a word, athletes-think George Gipp (the Gipper), Lou Gehrig, Dale Earnhardt-achieve immortality, the same elusive stuff Achilles sought on the battlefields of Troy. How and why the immortalization process happens-media coverage, Hollywood, family activism-is the question this captivating project answers. Richard Ian Kimball spotlights Joe DiMaggio, Bonnie McCarroll, Benny Paret, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams and many other notables, all to uncover the mythmaking behind the legend.--Foreword Reviews Beautifully written, solidly researched, and a pleasure to read. Kimball tends to a difficult subject in a straightforward, conversational style and raises questions worthy of debate. . . .By examining reactions to the shocking deaths of American sports heroes, Kimball illuminates the role of sports in addressing wider social and cultural anxieties the fallen have left behind.--Journal of Sport History


Author Information

Richard Ian Kimball is associate professor of history at Brigham Young University. He is the author of Sports in Zion: Mormon Recreation, 1890-1940.

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