Expanded and updated throughout, the fourth edition explores America's love of sport just as it reveals sport's darker side-the influence of big business, corruption, price gouging, political maneuvering, and media grandstanding. A new prelude draws students into the book by looking at the multiple levels (individual, organized, and professional) and meanings of sport. An entirely new chapter examines children's play and the emergence of adult-centered play as the primary sport experience of children with some undesirable consequences. Other chapters incorporate new information on the participation of women and minorities in coaching and management, new data on the economic inequalities that pervade sports, new information on the ties between businesses and college sports, and new developments in the global recruiting of coaches.

Eitzen draws his examples of famous and lesser-known events from professional, college, and school sports, including depictions of well known coaches and players, to give us a deeper understanding of what sport means to us and how it affects our everyday world. Ideal for sparking classroom discussion, the first three editions were widely read and enjoyed by students of sociology of sport, American society, and other courses.