Reviews

Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics by Jules Boykoff

benrogerswpg's review against another edition

4.0

This was a pretty interesting and pretty good book.

A book that really makes you think...

Very well researched by Boykoff.

Would recommend it!

Enjoying my Olympic reads lately. My eyes are glued to books these weeks!

4.3/5

gigi47's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

5.0

THE book on the political history of the Olympics. I recommend this one to everyone getting involved in anti-Olympic organizing and go back to reference parts of it several times a year. 

hayleeonfire's review against another edition

5.0

I was so fascinated with this book. I initially began it because I was interested in the relationship between sports and politics, entertainment and dissent. For me, this book struck a perfect balance in describing the politics of the times, as well as the people who advocated against the Olympics. It inspired me in a new way and I feel a better person having read it.

beataf's review against another edition

3.0

This is a lefty critique not of the concept of the Olympics as an international celebration of the concept of sport, but as a capitalist event series that destroys local communities and municipal fiscal health with little sustainable gain to show for it at the local level. It's like a book version of the articles that crop up like mushrooms two weeks before every Olympics, and I'm glad it's compiled here to have the (pretty damning) throughlines visible in one place. He does include a number of suggestions toward the end, but I wish they were sharper and more specific, perhaps tying them to ideas from other megaevent organizers. I liked the structure of going through the history Games by Games, but would have liked a more consistent narrative structure to make comparative learning a little easier, and occasionally a tighter edit would have made he writing sharper.