The American MarathonBoston established a footrace but New York City created a marathon culture that annually draws tens of thousands of runners to each of the major American events. The American Marathon is the first in-depth study of the marathon as a cultural performance that has as much power to unite communities across lines of race, ethnicity, class, and gender as it does to empower individuals. This book encompasses more than a century, from the fledgling days of the footrace in the 1890s to the popular contemporary marathons that have become corporate-sponsored institutions. Run in New York City in 1896 and continued in Boston for the next ten years, the marathon quickly became the event of the working-class athletes, particularly Irish Americans. Other urban ethnic groups-Italians, Jews, and African Americans who were unwelcome into the elite WASP athletic dubs-formed their own running organizations. Once emblematic of the immigrant experience, the marathon evolved to express middle-class nationalism as these immigrants were being assimilated. During the 1930s the Great Depression restricted footracing, and anti-Semitism left important coaches and runners without access to team support. The New York Pioneer Club, begun in 1936 as an African-American team, brought the tremendous energy of post World War II Harlem to the American marathon of the 1950s. Besides examining the ethnic influence on marathoning, Cooper also explores the impact of the Cold War on this sport, when fitness and endurance became matters of national pride. She shows how the Road Runners Club of America first brought women and large numbers of participant runners into long-distance footraces and, finally, how corporate sponsorship and direct payments to athletes profoundly changed the nature of this once-amateur sport. |
Contents
The City and the Sport Bureaucracy | 8 |
The New York City Marathon Culture 127 | 27 |
Illustrations | 31 |
Copyright | |
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AAU National African American Amateur Athletic American marathon Avon BAA Marathon became began Boston Athletic Association Boston Marathon Browning Ross Clarence DeMar Club of America coach competed competition cross-country Dengis entrants event finished Frank Shorter German-American Athletic Club Guttmann Harlem held IAAF immigrants International Irish Americans Irish-American Athletic Club jogging John Kelley Kuscsik Lebow letic long-distance runners long-distance running Mara marathon footrace marathon runners marathon running Martin and Gynn meters miles Millrose Athletic Association NCAA NYAC NYHT NYRRC official Olympic Committee Olympic Games organization participation PCDI Petaluma Pioneer Club Port Chester Port Chester Marathon president road races Road Runners Club Rodgers RRCA Scandurra Semple social spectators sponsors Ted Corbitt thon tion track and field United States Olympic upper-status winner women women's marathon won the Boston working-class Yancey Yonkers Marathon York Athletic Club York City Marathon York Pioneer Club York Road Runners