Fight Sports and American Masculinity

Throughout America’s past, some men have feared the descent of their gender into effeminacy, and turned their eyes to the ring in hopes of salvation. This work explains how the dominant fight sports in the United States have changed over time in response to broad shifts in American culture and ideals of manhood, and presents a narrative of American history as seen from the bars, gyms, stadiums and living rooms of the heartland. Ordinary Americans were the agents who supported and participated in fight sports and determined its vision of masculinity.
This work counters the economic determinism prevalent in studies of American fight sports, which overemphasize profit as the driving force in the popularization of these sports. The author also disputes previous scholarship’s domestic focus, with an appreciation of how American fight sports are connected to the rest of the world.

Christopher David Thrasher is a professor of history at Calhoun College in Decatur, Alabama and the author of several scholarly articles on the history of fight sports. He lives in Harvest, Alabama.

Christopher David Thrasher
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 300
Bibliographic Info: 42 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2015
pISBN: 978-0-7864-9704-1
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1823-4
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments  vi
Preface  1
Introduction: Global Fight Sports from Prehistory to 1607  13
I. “To Cut Out the Tongue or Pull Out the Eyes”: Fight Sports in the Americas, 1607–1810  29
II. “A Boxing We Will Go”: Boxing Takes Root in the United States, 1810–1915  49
III. “With the Energy of a ­Trip-Hammer and the Vehemence of a Sioux”: Asian Martial Arts Come to the United States, 1850–1941  99
IV. “We Live in Our Heroes”: Boxing Reigns Supreme in the United States, 1915–1941  140
V. “Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting”: Asian Martial Arts Gain Unprecedented Popularity in the United States, 1941–1981  166
VI. “We Shall Not Stand by Helplessly”: The Birth of Mixed Martial Arts, 1981 to the Present  198
Chapter Notes  237
Bibliography  280
Index  290

“research yields many surprising finds…there is much to learn from this book…recommended”—Choice.