Sports, Culture, and Nation: 1900–1945

During the first half of the twentieth century, the ideology of sports reached deep into the fabric of American life, becoming a key component of national routines and of a new consumer culture. Businessmen increasingly saw sports as a training ground for success in the marketplace, and even evangelicals began to use sports to recruit converts. Sports shaped the contents of a large body of juvenile literature and became a core ingredient in programs designed to manage the spare-time activities of adolescents. A new generation of sportswriters, radio broadcasters, and newsreel producers offered up interesting, lively, interpretive, and not infrequently exaggerated stories that made sports and athletes seem larger than life. As well as providing an entertaining escape from daily life, sporting events were also closely tied to the issues of the day, raising issues that ranged from racial identity to female abilities to the merits of different political systems. Sports remained a focus of debate, particularly when it failed to live up to the appealing promises made by its supporters. But it achieved an institutional permanency and prominence in American life in some ways equal to those of business, politics, ethnicity, and religion.