'Nazi Olympics' to be topic of Oct. 30 lecture
Allen Guttmann
One of the world’s top sport historians will lecture this week at Skidmore, courtesy of the Department of American Studies. Allen Guttmann will discuss "Jewish Athletes and the 'Nazi Olympics' of 1936" at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30, in Davis Auditorium.
Admission is free and open to the public.
Guttmann will discuss the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the Nazi refusal to allow participation by German Jews, the boycott controversy in the U.S., and the Jewish athletes who did and did not compete in the games.
Recently retired from Amherst College after 53 years of teaching, Guttmann is one of the world's preeminent sport historians. His articles and books cover a wide range of subjects and historical eras.
In addition to hundreds of articles and reviews, Guttmann is the author of From Ritual to Record: The Nature of Modern Sports (1978), The Games Must Go On: Avery Brundage and the Olympic Movement (1984), Sports Spectators (1986), Women’s Sports: A History (1991), Games and Empires: Modern Sports and Cultural Imperialism (1994), The Erotic in Sports (1996), The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games (1992), Sports: The First Five Millennia (2004), and Sports and American Art: From Benjamin West to Andy Warhol (2011).
The North American Society for Sport History has recognized Guttman for his “outstanding leadership in sport history with the publication of numerous books, service on journal editorial boards, teaching, writing and general service to the profession.”
In addition the faculty of social and behavioral science at Tuebingen University (Germany) conferred upon Guttmann an honorary doctorate for “his many contributions to the study of sports history and the Olympic Games and for his extensive documentation of the global development of modern sports. Professor Guttmann’s work, which is recognized throughout the world, has greatly influenced research at Tuebingen University.”
A graduate of the University of Florida, the University of Minnesota, and Columbia University, Guttmann has served as president of the North American Society for Sport History and on the editorial boards of American, British, French, and German journals dedicated to sport history and sport sociology.
The lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of History, the Faculty Network, and the Jacob Perlow Lecture Series Fund.
