cover image The Olympics, a History of the Modern Games: A History of the Modern Games

The Olympics, a History of the Modern Games: A History of the Modern Games

Allen Guttmann. University of Illinois Press, $24.95 (191pp) ISBN 978-0-252-01701-8

Amherst American studies professor Guttmann ( The Games Must Go On ) rejects the contention that successive boycotts of the 1980 Moscow games by the U.S. and the 1984 Los Angeles games by the then-U.S.S.R. have politicized the Olympics. Instead, claims the author, the games were staunchly political in origin and have remained so. Guttmann regards Baron de Coubertin, their inventor, as an ardent Germanophobe and the 1936 Berlin games as merely an ad for Nazism. He cites the recent opposition of Arab states to the presence of Israel and the African states of the Union of South Africa and observes struggles between the two Chinas and the two Germanys, as well as the slaughter at Munich in 1972. While not ignoring the games proper, Guttmann ably fills in the background. Photos not seen by PW. (June)