Symposium 2010 Suggested Reading List
John Carlin, Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and a Game that Made a Nation (Penguin, 2008)
A great introduction to or reminder of what apartheid was and how Nelson Mandela used the 1995 Rugby World Cup to unite South Africans. The new film: Invictus with Morgan Freeman (as Nelson Mandela) and Matt Damon, directed by Clint Eastwood is based on this book.
Charles Cumming, Typhoon, (St. Martin’s 2009)
In this novel, British and American spies clash in the buildup to the Beijing Olympics.
Franklin Foer, How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization (Harper Perennial, 2005)
A fascinating read about globalization and the role of culture by looking at soccer as an expression of national identity, economic and political power in various communities around the world, especially South America and Europe.
Richard Hoffer, Something in the Air: American Passion and Defiance in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics (Free Press, 2009)
Story of the 1968 Summer Olympics when medal winners Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their gloved fists in a black power salute on the winner’s stand.
David Maraniss, Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World (Simon & Schuster 2008)
A look at the Summer Olympics during the cold war when issues of East and West, Black and White (Mohammed Ali was still Cassius Clay), male and female, and amateur and professional really emerged.
Jen Marlowe, Aisha Bain and Adam Shapiro, Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival (Nation Books, 2006)
As a result of watching what they describe as “woefully inadequate media coverage” of the situation in Darfur, three young people went to the refugee camps in Chad and Sudan to learn what was really taking place. With up to 2 million people displaced and 400,000 plus people killed. Diaries records the stories and testimonies of the Darfurians they met and spoke with (refugees, fighters, community leaders, teachers, students, and parents) about the tragedy they are living. Through these personal experiences one can begin to understand the historical and political context of the on-going humanitarian crisis.
Christopher McDougall, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World has Never Seen ( Knopf 2009)
Very readable story of incredible characters and amazing athletes (ultrarunners) told within the story of the Tarahumara Indians of Copper Canyon Mexico.
Ed Viesturs and David Roberts, K-2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain (Broadway, 2009) and also their 2007 No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World’s 14 Highest Peaks (Broadway, 2007)
Viesturs’ memoir of his quest to become the first American to climb the 14 mountains in the world higher than 8,000 meters.