The Rise and Fall of Olympic Amateurism

“The authors do a marvelous job highlighting the rise of amateurism from its stoic British roots, through Baron Pierre de Coubertin and other IOC Presidents to its de facto champion in Avery Brundage. The real benefit of the book, however, is that they also manage to show just how complicated and convoluted this journey was and indeed continues to be. Highly recommended.”–Sport in American History
“Llewellyn and Gleaves have penned an excellent scholarly book in The Rise and Fall of Olympic Amateurism that should grace the libraries of Olympic and sport historians, and accompany any course on the history of the modern Olympic games.”–Aethlon “Llewellyn and Gleaves, both sports historians based at California State University, Fullerton, have added something original to the growing academic historiography of the Olympic Games. Through a detailed narrative, the authors show how Olympic amateurism was never, despite its external appearance, homogeneous. At a time when the Olympics are facing crises, both in their never-ending battle with institutional doping, and in the sharp decline in the number of cities that want to host the Games, books such as this give us a perspective on how Olympic history, not just its present, is deeply problematic.” –Journal of Contemporary History “The authors have done a useful service to scholars of the Olympics, the intersection of politics and sport, and the internationalist movements of the late nineteenth century. They have produced a thoughtful book, perfectly sized for classroom use, sure to ignite discussion and debate.”–Journal of Sport History “Llewellyn and Gleaves have admirably filled an existing void in Olympic historiography, namely a full-blown, archival research-supported, historical assessment of the somewhat tortured history of the amateur ideal within the Olympic world. You’ll enjoy reading it just as much as I sense they did in researching and writing this history.”–Stephen Wenn, coauthor of Tarnished Rings: The International Olympic Committee and the Salt Lake City Bid Scandal

Matthew P. Llewellyn and John Gleaves are associate professors of kinesiology at California State University, Fullerton.

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