Mortal Engines The Science of Performance and the Dehumanization of Sport

Name: Mortal Engines The Science of Performance and the Dehumanization of Sport
Price: 7.07 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780029147658

ISBN-10: 0029147654

ISBN-13: 9780029147658

Edition: N/A

Authors: John M. Hoberman

List price: $27.95

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"Despite a long series of sensational scandals implicating Olympic athletes in the use of illicit drugs and hazardous training techniques, competitors continue to employ them virtually without regard for the risks to their health and career. Gold medalist Ben Johnson's banning from Olympic competition for steroid abuse and Lyle Alzado's claim that steroids caused his terminal brain cancer are only two recent examples. Why do our best and most talented athletes continue to engage in these dangerous practices? There is more to it than a lust for wealth and fame. John Hoberman shows in this fascinating and, until now, untold story of the hundred-year history of "scientific sport" that the… roots of the problem really lie in the absorption by athletics of the values of industrial technology. At the highest levels sport has become an exercise in human engineering aimed at transforming the human body into an efficient, inexhaustible machine." "The story of how this gradual corruption came about is told in Mortal Engines, the first book to uncover the hidden symbiosis between science and sport in what Hoberman terms a massive uncoordinated experiment on the human organism. This link was glimpsed by early anthropologists interested in the classification of human types, and Hoberman reveals how the modern athlete emerged from this analytical effort, first as an anomaly or freak of nature, then as the embodiment of national or racial vitality and finally as a semi-divine cultural symbol. Hoberman describes the contributions of many different sciences to this growing cult of performance, detailing how early physiologists pursued research on stress and endurance on the playing fields (and battlegrounds) of Europe; how industrial psychologists studied the connection between mental attitudes or temperaments and human strength and energy; how biological scientists sought to expand the limits of performance by means of various drugs and synthetic hormones; and how even political science contributed to the enduring myths of the fascist and communist supermen." "Hoberman dissects the modern sports establishments of Europe and America and shows how a community of mutually dependent interest groups combine to promote continued scientific experiments despite futile efforts by Olympic authorities to enforce their own sanctions on those who violate the ban on illicit drugs. Hoberman also reflects on the future of sport as we enter a new era of unprecedented developments in genetic engineering and hormonal manipulation, with important implications for the science of human performance."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Book details

List price: $27.95
Publisher: Free Press
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 350
Size: 6.75" wide x 9.75" long x 1.25" tall
Weight: 1.540
Language: English



Preface


Acknowledgments



In the Penal Colony: Sport and the Great Experiment



Darwin's Athletes: The "Savage" and "Civilized" Body



Prophets of Performance: The Birth of Sports Physiology



Faster, Higher, Stronger: A History of Doping in Sport



The Last Frontier: Mental Energy and the Quest for Human Limits



The Myth of Communist Sports Science



A Conspiracy So Vast: The Politics of Doping



Horses and Humans: Equine Performance and the Future of Sport


Notes


Index