We've been told again and again that sports and politics don't mix, that games are just games and athletes should just 'shut up and play.' But according to Nation magazine sports editor Dave Zirin, this notion is just flat-out wrong. In 'Not Just a Game', the powerful new documentary based on his bestselling book 'The People's History of Sports in the United States', Zirin argues that far from providing merely escapist entertainment, American sports have long been at the center of some of the major political debates and struggles of our time. The result is as deeply moving as it is exhilarating: nothing less than an alternative history of political struggle in the United States as seen through the games its people have played.
Not Just a Game
This critique of U.S. sports culture shows how 20th-century sports has consistently reflected the hegemonic political discourse of the day, specifically, elite narratives about nationalism, war, gender, race, homosexuality and capitalism.
