Richard M. Nixon meeting with the 1971 Washington Redskins football team two days before Thanksgiving. Photo: Oliver F. Atkins. (Wikipedia)
We are currently seeking additional contributions to a proposed edited collection, provisionally entitled The Sporting Presidency: Presidents and Sport from Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trump, edited by Dr Adam Burns (University of Wolverhampton) and Dr Rivers Gambrell (University of Oxford), aimed at the series “New Perspectives on the American Presidency” from Edinburgh University Press (series editors: Prof. Michael P. Cullinane, University of Roehampton and Prof. Sylvia Ellis, University of Roehampton).
Brief Synopsis
Donald Trump’s love of golf adds him to a long line of presidents who have had a close association with sports and are keen to show it. Indeed, golf might just be the leading presidential pastime, ever since William Howard Taft was photographed strutting the links a century ago, against the advice of his predecessor Theodore Roosevelt. It was Roosevelt, however, who truly set the standard for linking the nation’s top job to its favorite physical pastimes.
Starting with studies of Roosevelt’s significant role in linking the presidency with fandom, advocacy of, and active participation in sports, this volume traces how occupants of the White House continued to develop these connections in various guises across the following century. Though historians have certainly not ignored such associations, the variety of case studies represented here seeks to provide a wider and more multidisciplinary selection of standpoints from which to assess interactions between the presidency, sport and athleticism than ever before.
Submission Details
If you are interested in contributing to this volume, please email the volume editors (a.burns4@wlv.ac.uk; riversgambrell@gmail.com) and include a short abstract of c. 200-250 words outlining your proposed topic, along with your name, institutional affiliation (if appropriate), and a list of any relevant publications (and/or your thesis topic, for those currently still enrolled as postgraduate students).
Please return your abstracts by 19 October 2020, and final decisions on inclusions will be communicated by 16 November 2020. Final chapters should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words in total (including notes), and must be submitted to the editors by 27 August 2021.
