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Palgrave Macmillan

The History and Politics of Motor Racing

Lives in the Fast Lane

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

  • Provides a one-stop shop for understanding the history, politics, and social/cultural dynamics of motor sports
  • Covers a broad swath of motor racing forms and types -- from early competition to F1 to NASCAR to eSports
  • Takes a broad, international approach

Part of the book series: Global Culture and Sport Series (GCS)

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Table of contents (29 chapters)

  1. The Origins of Motor Sport

  2. The Early Political Significance of Motor Racing

  3. Motor Racing and the Automobile Industry

Keywords

About this book

This book explores the history and politics of motor racing, one of the most popular and lucrative elements in the international sport industry. Written by a group of international scholars and motor racing specialists it discusses the sport’s origins, the relationship of motor racing to nation building and modernity (noting its links to fascism and dictatorship), the links between motor racing and the automobile industry, motor racing and the politics both of gender and of race, motor racing, the media and postmodernity, and motor racing, the spatial and globalization. This book speaks to scholars in history, politics, sport studies, the sociology of sport, sport management and cultural studies, along with the many lay readers who are interested in the relationship between motor sport and society.

Reviews

"This expansive volume stands as the definitive scholarly work on the global motorsport industry to date. The broad scope of subject matter is comprehensive, providing significant theoretical and empirical insights into the complex dynamics shaping the relationship between motorsport and society." (Mark Lowes, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, University of Ottawa, Canada)

 

“Despite its global popularity motor sport has driven, conspicuously, under the radar of serious scholarly analysis. The editors fill this gap with a comprehensive and critical exploration of the history and politics of motor racing that spans both temporal and geographic boundaries. In combination, the rich set of essays provides unique insights into the contested terrain of the sport in relation to identity politics, environmental sustainability and empty corporate social responsibility campaigns.” (Steven Jackson, Professor in the School of Physical Education, Sport & Exercise Sciences, University of Otago, New Zealand)

 

The History and Politics of Motor Racing: Lives in the Fast Lane offers astute analyses of the global sport’s often dubious linkages to the automobile industry, technological change, and environmentalism while also revealing the exclusionary politics of masculinity, race, and nation. This compelling collection deftly maps the social, political, and economic contours of racing from local grassroots events to such international spectacles as Formula One racing to provide much-needed, critical attention on motorsports—which to date have received insufficient scholarly attention.” (Mary G. McDonald, Homer C. Rice Chair in Sports and Society, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

    Damion Sturm

  • International Centre for Sport History and Culture, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

    Stephen Wagg

  • Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland, College Park, USA

    David L. Andrews

About the editors

Damion Sturm is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Management at Massey University (Auckland, New Zealand).With a specialisation in global sport media cultures (inclusive of celebrity, fan and material cultures), he recently co-edited Sport in Aotearoa New Zealand: Contested Terrain (with Roslyn Kerr, 2022), co-authored Media, Masculinities and the Machine (with Dan Fleming, 2011), and has published works on mediatisation, technological innovations and sporting events (Formula One, the Indy 500, Formula E, Formula One eSports, cricket, rugby league and the America’s Cup).

Stephen Wagg retired as Professor of Sport and Society at Leeds Beckett University, UK, in 2019. He is now an Honorary Fellow in the International Centre for Sport History and Culture at De Montfort University in Leicester. He has written widely on the politics of sport, of childhood and of comedy. His latest book is Cricket: A Political History of the Global Game 1945-2017 (2018).

David L. Andrews is Professor of Physical Cultural Studies in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA.  His research contextualizes sport and physical culture in relation to the intersecting cultural, political, economic, and technological forces shaping contemporary society.  His books include: Making Sport Great Again?: The Uber-Sport Assemblage, Neoliberalism, and the Trump Conjuncture (2019, Palgrave Macmillan), The Routledge Handbook of Physical Cultural Studies (2017), and Sport, Physical Culture, and the Moving Body: Materialisms, Technologies, Ecologies (2020).



Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The History and Politics of Motor Racing

  • Book Subtitle: Lives in the Fast Lane

  • Editors: Damion Sturm, Stephen Wagg, David L. Andrews

  • Series Title: Global Culture and Sport Series

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22825-4

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-22824-7Published: 10 June 2023

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-22827-8Due: 11 July 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-22825-4Published: 09 June 2023

  • Series ISSN: 2662-3404

  • Series E-ISSN: 2662-3412

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXIX, 771

  • Number of Illustrations: 11 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Sociology of Sport and Leisure, Sociology of Culture, Political Sociology, Sports Economics

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