This well-written book is excellent at identifying and explaining problems related to violence in sports. However, it only sometimes offers realistic solutions; at times it goes too far, and is occasionally even contradictory.

Yes, parents should protect their children from harm, and athletes should be treated with humanity by their coaches their health & safety should be valued. But suggesting that young men join dance instead of tackle football* is not going to solve the “masculinity… crisis,” which Sailofsky mentions: the feelings of alienation and purposelessness faced by many young men and boys in the West today who want to feel strong and valued. Neither is making every country socialist. People who want to play sports, and for whom that is a good income option, should be able to do so (safely!).

And the author is right that there are some issues in capitalist countries. However, most of those issues (along with other really bad problems, looking at history) also happen in socialist and Marxist countries (as the author even points out), and there is no way the United States is going to just suddenly become socialist. As Sailofsky quotes Marx: “people may ‘make their own history, but they do not do it as they please. They do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already.’”** And while I agree completely with the author that sports should be less violent, it is incredibly ironic for this anti-violence book to cite Mao Zedong like a hero when he killed MILLIONS of people.**

The strongest parts of this book are not academic discussions of political philosophy, but Sailofsky’s discussions of real athletes who have been harmed by the violence in sport. It is heartbreaking and infuriating to see the completely-unnecessary suffering that so many athletes have endured. Even though I don’t think Sailofsky’s goal of a capitalism-free world will be realized anytime soon, I do hope this book continues drawing attention to the problems in sports and will bring about positive changes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the University of North Carolina Press for the free eARC. I post this review with my honest opinions.

* I have no problem with men dancing and my husband is a great dancer. However, many boys who want physical activity and team sports would not choose dance.
**Please note, I read an advanced review copy, so the parts of the book mentioned with asterisks in this review may have been changed before publication.

This book is absolutely fascinating and well researched. I received a copy via NetGalley. Would recommend to anyone interested in the topic.

More than I expected for an academic title. Interesting, engaging, and palatable for folks who have been out of school for a while.

The professionalization of sport in our capitalist society has lead team owners, coaches, players, and even parents to internalize the logics of capital accumulation: profit at all costs and before any other concerns. We see this in sexual abuse scandals covered up for years, domestic abusers continuing to play and be paid because they're produce wins, athletes suffering from drug addiction and injuries whose consequences include early death, and even increased competition and stress among parents of amateur players who see sports as the only chance for their children to achieve upward social mobility.

In addition to this, capitalist sport brings economic suffering, environmental harm, and the destruction of homes and communities through the theater that is performed every time an international sporting event like the Olympics is held.

These problems and more are inherent to capitalist sport, and while there are individual changes and regulations that can be enacted, through uphill battles, to ease some of them, truly solving these violent consequences requires a socialist vision that brings sport back to its roots as a part of physical fitness, healthy community engagement that strengthens social bonds, and human flourishing and fulfillment.

This book was right up my alley, although outside my usual sights. Marxist analysis of a piece of society like sport has given me a deeper understanding of the ways in which capitalism seeps into every aspect of our life, even those aspects we usually consider to be leisure. My biggest criticism was the lack of a section related to the rise of sports gambling, although I think the problems there are pretty obvious. Thank you to University of North Carolina Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley.