{"title":"Books by Jules Boykoff","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781529230284","title":"What Are the Olympics For?","description":"‘Athletes first’ is a slogan the International Olympic Committee often touts, but the reality is very different, as pre-eminent Olympics expert Jules Boykoff shows in this book. While the world’s attention is riveted by the triumphs and tribulations on their screens, there is much that goes on behind the scenes that is deeply troubling: athletes are increasingly voicing concerns over physical, mental, and sexual abuse, and they are collectively expressing grievances around equity and human rights. Outside the stadiums, problems range from the democratic deficit and corruption surrounding the awarding of the Games, to displacement of people and gentrification of neighbourhoods to make way for Olympic venues, to the environmental damage that Olympic construction inflicts and then tries to greenwash away. Boykoff tells us that radical steps are required if the Games are to be fixed and only then will they be truly ‘athletes first’.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56302721073525,"sku":"9781529230284","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781529230284_3aca6a2b-eb55-4a1f-a9da-2dec6d762418.jpg?v=1786021871"},{"product_id":"9781784780722","title":"Power Games","description":"\u003cb\u003eA timely, no-holds barred, critical political history of the modern Olympic   Games\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Olympics have a checkered, sometimes scandalous, political history. Jules Boykoff, a former US Olympic team member, takes readers from the event’s nineteenth-century origins, through the Games’ flirtation with Fascism, and into the contemporary era of corporate control. Along the way he recounts vibrant alt-Olympic movements, such as the Workers’ Games and Women’s Games of the 1920s and 1930s as well as athlete-activists and political movements that stood up to challenge the Olympic machine.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305432134005,"sku":"9781784780722","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781784780722_4fd83947-0f25-4ba9-bf64-bd4ec8347483.jpg?v=1786026038"},{"product_id":"kicking","title":"Kicking","description":"As a poet, public-facing scholar of sports politics, and former professional soccer player, having represented the United States on the men’s U23 national soccer team, Jules Boykoff draws on his lifetime of athletic experience to reflect on the practice of kicking. With short vignettes blending the personal, the reflective, the historical, and the analytical, \u003ci\u003eKicking\u003c\/i\u003e is uniquely positioned to reflect on the most popular sport in the world. From the act of kicking a soccer ball, Boykoff looks outward to his own family history, including his mother’s struggle with polio, which fed her insistence on his athleticism; to broader trends like greenwashing and sportwashing; and to reflections on sport’s toxic masculinity, the poetics of on-field revenge, and the power-politics of both the men’s and women’s World Cups. \u003ci\u003eKicking\u003c\/i\u003e is a must-read for all those who love the beautiful game.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57484270305653,"sku":"9781478038900","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781478038900.jpg?v=1786266323"},{"product_id":"red-card","title":"Red Card","description":"The World Cup is here, but what function does a worldwide tournament play in an increasingly belligerent police state, with Donald Trump at the helm?Publishing on the eve of the soccer World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, this concise, power-packed philippic provides a critical take on the dark underbelly of the beautiful game at its most storied moment.   At the heart of this analysis by acclaimed sportswriter and scholar Jules Boykoff, who himself played soccer professionally, is the concept of sportswashing, where political leaders use sports to stoke nationalism and legitimize themselves on the world stage, deflecting from chronic problems at home. Step forward the recipient of the newly cast FIFA Peace Prize, Donald J. Trump, a titan unrivaled in squeegeeing every drop of personal wealth and prestige from hosting the competition. In this, he is ably assisted by a governing body of global soccer dripping in patronage and corruption.   In these pages Boykoff demonstrates that it is possible to simultaneously treasure the skills and athleticism displayed on the pitch while lamenting their exploitation by malevolent powerbrokers for whom love of the game means nothing next to turning a buck or harvesting prestige. And, as Red Card so skillfully shows, this bait and switch is not confined to soccer. Precisely the same legerdemain will be used to distract and enrich when the Olympic Games come to Los Angeles two years from now.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57487756558709,"sku":"9781682195284","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781682195284.jpg?v=1786354981"},{"product_id":"nolympians","title":"NOlympians","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eNOlympians: Inside the Fight Against Capitalist Mega-Sports in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Beyond\u003c\/em\u003e investigates the intersection of the global rise of anti-Olympics activism and the declining popularity of hosting of the Games. The Olympics were once buoyed by myths of luminous prosperity and upticks in tourism and jobs, but in recent years these assurances have been debunked. Now more than ever, it’s clear that the Olympics have transmogrified into a political-economic juggernaut that arrives with displacement, expanded policing, and anti-democratic backroom deals.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003eJules Boykoff – a former professional soccer player who represented the US Olympic soccer team – zooms in on Los Angeles, where the Democratic Socialists of America have launched the NOlympics LA campaign ahead of the 2028 Summer Games. Boykoff shows how DSA-LA’s anti-Olympics activism fits with the resurgence of socialism in the US and beyond.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003eBoykoff’s research, based on more than 100 interviews with anti-Olympics activists, personal experiences at protests in Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, London, and Tokyo, academic research, mass- and alternative-media coverage, and Olympic archives, is the backbone for this story of activists fighting against the odds and embracing the transformative politics of democratic socialism.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57487758918005,"sku":"9781773632766","price":17.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781773632766.jpg?v=1786354983"},{"product_id":"athlete-and-activist","title":"Athlete and Activist","description":"\u003cp\u003eTime and again, great athletes seem to do the impossible. Their skills amaze us. Their work ethic inspires awe. Their talent is next level. At the same time, an athlete's fame gives them a platform to speak out on important issues. With words and actions, a basketball star or Olympic legend can reach millions of people with their message.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAthlete and Activist\u003c\/i\u003e highlights sports figures who risked their popularity and even their careers to stand against injustice. Each profile takes readers inside the issues that motivated an athlete's activism. Striking portraits by award-winning illustrator Martin French add a visual dimension to the dramatic stories. Throughout, the authors show athletes using different kinds of activism. Some spoke out. Others performed silent gestures. Still others let their success speak for itself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA different kind of sports history, \u003ci\u003eAthlete and Activist\u003c\/i\u003e is an inspiring look at heroic acts beyond our favorite games.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57499404468597,"sku":"9780252059919","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780252059919.jpg?v=1786694708"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-jules-boykoff.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}