2008 Volume 16 Pages 5-20
It is ten years since the publication in 1997 of John Hoberman's Darwin's Athletes caused heated controversies among American readers. This book was reviewed in many academic and general journals, discussed in symposiums at institutions of higher education, and introduced by radio and TV programs. Although the book has won much acclaim among general readers, it has also been severely criticized by scholars, especially in the disciplines of history and sociology. The first section summarizes Hoberman's arguments on sports fixation, to which most of the criticisms by these scholars were directed. The second section clarifies the main points of criticism, drawing on the reviews by historian Jeffrey T. Sammons, and sociologists Ben Carrington/Ian McDonald and Douglass Hartmann. The third section outlines the changes that the American sport world has undergone during the decade since the book's publication, focusing on Harry Edwards' prediction regarding the end of “the golden age of black sports participation, ” the trends in American sports that seem to have challenged or transcended racial and athletic stereotypes, representations of African American athleticism in such Hollywood movies as Friday Night Lights and Coach Carter, and the NBA's so-called “One and Done” scheme, which requires high-school basketball player graduates to wait a year before entering the NBA draft. Based on the analyses of these examples, this article attempts to re-evaluate Darwin's Athletes from an original perspective, with particular emphasis on the author's astuteness with which the causal relationship between commitment to sports and declining academic records is analyzed in a both-directional way.
