Sports fans or not, readers will be fascinated by this revealing examination of the pressures leading to the widespread use of steroids in sport and the negative, unintended consequences of their ban.
From Baron Pierre de Coubertin's original objectives in establishing the modern Olympic Games to the increasingly widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs during the Cold War to the 1998 drug scandal during the Tour de France and beyond, Steroids: A New Look at Performance-Enhancing Drugs puts the social construction of steroids as a banned substance under the microscope and interprets the implications of that particular conception of steroid use in sport.
Clearly written and highly accessible for all readers, this book addresses a pressing issue in professional and high-performance sport—the use of steroids—by placing it within the historical context of the ongoing desire to achieve the pinnacle of human sport. Topics examined in detail include the three major crises of Ben Johnson's positive test in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the creation of the World Anti-Doping Association, and the House Committee on Government Oversight's probe into steroid use. The author provides a critical examination of the current ban on steroids, and boldly advocates a common-sense solution to the complex problem of steroid use in sport: the adoption of harm-reduction strategies and policies rather than outright proscription.
By:
Rob Beamish
Imprint: Praeger Publishers Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 235mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 25mm
Weight: 539g
ISBN: 9780313380242
ISBN 10: 0313380244
Pages: 232
Publication Date: 15 August 2011
Recommended Age: From 7 to 17 years
Audience:
General/trade
,
Adult education
,
ELT Advanced
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Preface Introduction 1. Coubertin's Olympic Project 2. Sports, Spectacles, and the Nation-State: The Nazi Olympics 3. The Olympic Games' Fundamental Principle: The Spirit of Olympism 4. The Social Construction of Steroids in Sports 5. Interests of the Nation-State, Sports, and Steroids 6. Steroids in Sports: The Social Construction of a New Moral Panic Conclusion: Sports, Modernity, and Steroids Bibliography Index
Rob Beamish is associate professor of sociology at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Reviews for Steroids: A New Look at Performance-Enhancing Drugs
<p> The book is well researched and referenced; Beamish reanalyzes available literature, offers different and courageous viewpoints, clarifies misinformation, and warns of unintended consequences of banning steroids. Valuable for those interested in the sociology of sport. Summing Up: Recommended. - <p>Choice
