Sociology of Sports

As lead presenter for Sky Sports Formula One live coverage, Simon Lazenby is at the centre of Grand Prix race-weekend action. In this book, he takes us off camera to give us exclusive, behind-the-scenes access to the people who power this multi-billion-pound sport.

Everyone knows that football is violent and dangerous. But what the players who built the NFL into a $10 billion industry didn’t know—and what the league sought to shield from them—is that no amount of padding could protect the human brain from the force generated by modern football....

Brought to you by Penguin. Hurling is Ireland's national game – a source of fascination and pride, even to people who have never played it. Ciarán Murphy, a lifelong club footballer, used to be one of those people.

Fixed breaks new ground as Moses Swaibu becomes the first player ever to write openly about how he helped to fix games, revealing exactly what happens on the pitch when a match is being manipulated.

You are cordially invited to join Michael Bamberger on a year-long golfing adventure—playing alongside the pros of the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour, LIV Golf, and more—as he seeks to unlock golf’s most stubborn secrets in various and surprising ways, all in the name of…improvement!

Pull back the curtain on the most powerful position in all of sports: the Quarterback, the American equivalent of royalty, long glamorized, mythologized and worshiped.

In Sport, the term 'good bloke' doesn't mean what it says. Like 'fun run', it in fact often means the exact opposite....

From ESPN reporter Marc Raimondi comes a compelling, gripping narrative history of professional wrestling’s legendary faction, The NWO (New World Order), from their inception in 1996 to their influence on American pop culture today.

Captain, father, leader, a fearless ambassador for the causes he believes in and a world-class midfielder, Jordan Henderson is all of these things—and it is why he is one of the most widely respected players of his generation....

After a lifetime of writing about the professional sport, Michael Bamberger, “the poet laureate of golf” (GOLF magazine), delivers an exhilarating love letter to the amateur game as it’s played—and lived—by the rest of us....

Every decade brings change, but as Michael MacCambridge chronicles in The Big Time, no decade in American sports history featured such convulsive cultural shifts as the 1970s....

A hilarious but nonetheless groundbreaking contribution to the argument about which force shapes American life the most. For two kinds of audiences—those who know it’s football and those who are about to find out.

Formula 1 teams operate at the highest level of any competitive sport – and indeed of any industry. With huge sums of money, global prestige and even lives on the line, they must constantly work at an elite level to survive and succeed.

Movies with Balls will make you want to rewatch the movies you already love, and discover gems you've never seen. Play ball!

The GAA is Ireland's largest civil society organisation, woven into the fabric of families and communities - and yet most books about Gaelic games focus on the greatest players and inter-county teams. This is the Life takes a witty and provocative look at grassroots GAA....

The NBA has returned to prominence on the backs of phenoms like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett....

The woman nicknamed “The Black Widow” opens up about her legendary career and the rich, unpredictable life she’s woven around it.

In a world where we are having to work harder than ever before, where talk of ‘burnout’ is everywhere and where pressures increase in many areas of our lives, some of us are turning to endurance sport and extreme challenges.

The definitive, devastating account of the largest sex abuse scandal in American sports history - with new details and insights into the institutional failures, as well as the bravery that brought it to light....

If you’re struggling with today’s sports parents, you are not alone....

Red on Red tells the story of the most contested fixture in world football....

Pro wrestling has always been wrapped in mystery. After a century of masquerading as legitimate sport, at last pro wrestling has begun to show the potential of its form. At its core, it is live combat theatre, and no one has done more to codify and analyze this art form than Mike Quackenbush....

Putting the games in the context of Rome's rise and dramatic fall, Mannix captures all the history, planning, and savage pageantry that went into creating the first spectator sports.

Inside America’s preventable sports-gambling debacle.

In this extraordinary tour de force, David Goldblatt tells the full story of soccer's rise from chaotic folk ritual to the world's most popular sport - now poised to fully establish itself in the USA....