KINES 111 - History of Sport

Upper Division

Prerequisites
KINES 010 and KINES 015 (concurrent enrollment in KINES 015 is allowed), or for non-majors, permission of the instructor.

Examines the sportive and exercise cultures of selected past societies. We begin by exploring the place of sport and exercise in ancient Sumer, Egypt, Mesoamerica, and (in more depth) Greece and Rome. During the second half of the semester the focus is on sporting experiences in North America. Our investigations center on physical activity among native Americans and early colonists and during the revolutionary and antebellum periods; the rise of rationalized sport during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, the arrival of the so called Golden Age of Sport, and the intersections between sport, the mass media, and the Civil Rights Movement. We close with a brief history and analysis of athletics at Saint Mary’s College of California.

Course credits: 1