Product Description
The 1972 Munich Olympics--remembered almost exclusively for the devastating terrorist attack on the Israeli team--were intended to showcase the New Germany and replace lingering memories of the Third Reich. That hope was all but obliterated in the early hours of September 5, when gun-wielding Palestinians murdered 11 members of the Israeli team. In the first cultural and political history of the Munich Olympics, Kay Schiller and Christopher Young set these Games into both the context of 1972 and the history of the modern Olympiad. Delving into newly available documents, Schiller and Young chronicle the impact of the Munich Games on West German society. ... Read more

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An irreverent look at the world's biggest sporting event

 The sixth volume in the popular "Most Wanted" series
 Dive into amusing Olympic moments both high and low
 Written by the author of four books in the "Most Wanted" series: Baseball, Football, Wrestling, and Golf, as well as the successful sports title Golf!: Great Moments & Dubious Achievements in Golf History

Olympic history is filled with the unusual, the bizarre, and the unbelievable. THE OLYMPICS' MOST WANTED chronicles 700 of the most outlandish competitors in the history of the winter and summer Olympics. Its seventy lists describe in humorous detail the Olympics' most inept athletes, strangest events, most embarrassing performances, poorest losers, most outrageous cheaters, unlikeliest heroes, most notorious disqualifications, and more. Only here will you find out that Margaret Abbott won the gold medal women's golf in 1900 without realizing she was competing in the Olympics or that Fred Lorz rode in a car for eleven of the twenty-six miles of the 1904 marathon. American tennis player Marion Jones won a bronze medal at the 1900 games without winning a match. Stella Walsh, 1932 gold medalist in the women's 100-meter dash, was, in reality, a man. All this and more can be found in THE OLYMPICS' MOST WANTED. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Hilarious!
Strip away the pomp and circumstance, and you will find the eccentricities, extravagance, and scandals of the Olympic athletes to be much more entertaining than the televised games.

Fun, Wacky, and AmazingTrivia about the Olympics!!
As a huge fan of the Olympics, I thought I had seen all the odd facts and quirky moments in Olympic history (after all we've all seen those vignettes on the networks that cover the Games!). But when i read this book I was amazed at the fun details that no one has ever mentioned before!! Can you imagine not knowing you were competing in the Olympics?? Or riding in a car for part of the marathon and still winning a medal?

This book has all the unusual, weird and bizarre facts that only an event as big as the Olympics could generate! Keep it next to your television and laugh your way through the Winter Games this February! ... Read more

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An awesome festival of sporting excellence and competition, the Olympic Games have now evolved into a major international event with great cultural, political, economic and social importance.

The Olympic Games Explained is an introductory guide to the history and meaning of the four-yearly phenomenon that is the modern Olympic Games. The book provides a comprehensive overview of ‘Olympism’ from its Ancient Greek origins through the beginnings of the International Olympic Committee to the global Olympic Movement in the twenty-first century.

Each chapter offers a range of study tasks and review questions to help students develop their understanding of key concepts in Olympic studies.

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Product Description
What was it like to live in ancient Greece? What gods and goddesses did Greeks believe in? How did the Olympics start? What was the winner’s prize? Find out the answers to these questions and many more in this Magic Tree House Research Guide. Includes fun facts from Jack and Annie, fantastic photos and illustrations, and a guide to doing further research! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

As the 2010 Olympics Unfold
As the 2010 olymipcs unfold in Canada I wanted to learn more about what the games are all about.

Here you learn about daily life in ancient greece, Greek gods; zeus, hera, athena, and more.The olympic grounds and the different summer games.

Now after reading this book in this great series I understand the olympics better.Now lets go watch the games.yeaaa.

Sneaking fun into learning with Magic Tree House
These books make learning history fun, especially with the companion story books that can be used with them, and the Magic Tree House website even offers a few free activity pages as well.I only wish I'd discovered this series sooner for the sake of my older children!

What a great addition to MTH!
I was so excited when I came across these 'research guides' in a used book store, they are a wonderful addition!My kids have enjoyed the series so much, but the books are a little young for some fans, but they love getting the research guide to deepen their understanding of the settings and get good background information.With the summer Olympics upcoming, I made sure to have this research guide available before school ended.

Great stand-alone as well as companion book
In a recent survey of my school students, grades K through 4, Magic Tree House books won hands down as the favorite, with a strong showing in all five grade levels. The Research Guides are an excellent addition to a library collection. The connection with Jack and Annie is enough to hook any and all readers of the fiction series. But the research guides stand on their own as informative and fascinating reading. Fact-filled and thoroughly readable, these are excellent references for any reports as well as suppement to the fiction book for which it is companion.
The table of contents and index are useful, as is a list of suggested web sites and CD-ROM's, videos, books, and even museums. Best of all are the tips for making the most of each reference, for example, take your notebook to the museum, and it isn't necessary to read the entire non-fiction book. Photographs and drawings are plentiful and right on the mark.

review on ancient greece and the olyimpics
(......)My Summaryon AncientGreece and the Olympics4/13/05
Bookby Mary popeosborne




This book is abouttwokids Jake and Annie are kids who like to find thing out about theTitanic,twisters, and the Olympics.

In this book they want to find out about ancient Greece and the Olympics. So in this book going backin the past and try and figure out how the Olympics worked in the past.


Ilike the book becauseit gives youthe idea of what the people in Greece lived. The book over all the book is great.

I recommend this book so that boys and girls age 10-14 can read this book. It is so greatthat I want to read itagain.
... Read more

Product Description
This book deals with whether the 2008 Olympics brought any benefits, or any lasting benefits, to the Chinese people by enhancing human rights and accelerating rule of law development. China views the 2008 Olympics as not merely just an athletic event, but as recognition of its global, economic, diplomatic, and military power. It is a way of extending themselves to the world. It is, to them, a political event in many ways, and one of great significance. ... Read more

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Including an in-depth preview of Sydney 2000.

This brand new book covers the beautiful venues, inspiring athletes and tumultuous circumstances surrounding the world's greatest sporting event. Features include an index of important facts as well as detailed statistical information about the medal winners. From Athens to Atlanta, stunning action photos taken by top sports journalists capture the true spirit of the games.Amazon.com Review
The Olympic Games demand more from viewers than just turning on the TV. Like the athletes themselves, we spectators need to do our training. We need to know the history, the events, the competitors, and the records. The more up to speed we are on them, the better shape we're in to appreciate the hoopla.

Newly updated for the gathering in Sydney, The Olympic Games is a coffee table-sized, gold medal effort that has a complete training facility between its covers. Letting its tremendous cache of recent and vintage photos perform the heavy lifting, it looks both forward and back, running the Olympian gamut from the grand and glorious to the trivial and arcane. Sydney is previewed in detail with a full schedule and a look at the venues and some of the athletes worth keying on, but The Olympic Games's real strength is its focus on the Games' rich past and enduring legacy.

Each Olympics--summer and winter--since the 1896 revival comes with an incisive recap of the major events and personalities that defined it, followed by several wonderful pages of portraits and action shots with remarkably informative captions. The archival pictures are particularly priceless. They give faces to names and accomplishments that deserve remembering. Even better, the evolution in their very style conveys just how much so many of the sports have changed from lonely pursuits of personal excellence to international arenas for instant stardom. The book's last 100 pages are devoted to results and statistics--every gold, silver, and bronze medalist gets his or her due, and for those utterly immersed in Olympic trivia, the lighter of each Olympic torch is noted as well. --Jeff Silverman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Comprehensive and informative...
A very good coffee-table book about the Olympic Games.Excellent photography, text, and results of all the Olympic Games.

If you're looking for one book to have in your collection, this is an excellent choice.I hope there will be an update in the future!

For Olympics buffs
A real compendium of information for the armchair buff or visiting Olympics spectator. Each Olympic games, both summer and winter is covered. It is lavishly illustrated - the stories are told via the pictures which are all well-captioned.

As well, there is a comprehensive list of results (Gold Silver and Bronze medal winners) for every event in every games.

This is the definitive Olympics compendium and I thoroughly recommend it.

The reference i was looking for
A great book for anybody looking to get a reference for the olympic games.Long time back i was looking for the same but i got nothing, now " TheOlympic Games " gave me the chance. The result of all competitions inthe entire summer and winter olympics really comprehensive, text andpictures were useful and enjoyable. I feel no sorry that i got thisreference.

Howzat! A hole in one!
A great little book which covers all aspects of the even greater Olympic games - great for reference, casual reading or if you just love the odd nutty fact! A must for sea-farers (great sailing section) ... Read more

Product Description
The Adventures of Asterix (French: Asterix or Asterix le Gaulois) is a series of French comic books written by Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo (Uderzo also took over the job of writing the series after the death of Goscinny in 1977). The series first appeared in French in the magazine Pilote on 29 October 1959. As of 2008, 33 comic books in the series have been released.
The series follows the exploits of a village of ancient Gauls as they resist Roman occupation. They do so by means of a magic potion, brewed by their druid, which gives the recipient superhuman strength. The protagonist, the titular character, Asterix, along with his friend Obelix have various adventures. In many cases, this leads them to travel to various countries around the world, though other books are set in and around their village. For much of the history of the series (Volumes 4 through 29), settings in Gaul and abroad alternated, with even-numbered volumes set abroad and odd-numbered volumes set in Gaul, mostly in the village.
The Asterix series is one of the most popular Franco-Belgian comics in the world, with the series being translated into over 100 languages, and it is popular in most European countries.
The success of the series has led to the adaptation of several books into 11 films; eight animated, and three with live actors. There have also been a number of games based on the characters, and a theme park near Paris, Parc Asterix, is themed around the series. To date, 325 million copies of 33 Asterix books have been sold around the world making co-creators Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo France's bestselling authors abroad. ... Read more

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This is the official guide to the greatest sports and entertainment extravaganza yet staged. Authorized by the International Olympic Committee and the Atlanta Centennial Celebration, this book contains essential information relating to the who, what, where, and when of the 1996 Summer Games and the 100th anniversary of the birth of the modern Olympics. 100+ color photos. Size D. 80 pp. Over 100 color photos; charts; tables. 8 1/2 x 11. Cover Title ... Read more

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"Dishonored Games: Corruption, Money & Greed at the Olympics" reveals the truth behind the Olympic myth.

Every four years, the Olympics are celebrated with a flood of congratulatory coverage. In all the books, articles and documentaries extolling the beauty and purity of the Olympic Ideal, only cursory notice is given to the Lausanne-based International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) and its little known President, Juan Antonio Samaranch.

Dishonored Games explodes the carefully cultivated image and idealistic hype behind the I.O.C. and its self-perpetuating leadership. The book reveals influence peddling, lavish gifts and bribes, and abuse of power in the Olympic movement.

Including:

THE MYTH: The Olympic Games are the greatest festival of sport; they belong to the people of the world and are a magnificent demonstration of decency, fair play and openness.

THE TRUTH: The Olympics are now the plaything of the world’s top twelve multinational companies, who pay hundreds of millions of dollars in sponsorship money. Doping is still rampant. Sports leaders promise to crack down but do little.

THE CLUB: The Games are controlled by a self-perpetuating oligarchy who travel the world like kings, most taking lavish gifts from cities desperate to cash in on the huge profits the Olympics now generate. In 1990 we saw the humiliating resignation of a leading member of "The Club". He had been caught taking "consultation fees" from business.

THE LEADER: The authors reveal that the ruler of the Olympic movement and world sport is a man who spent nearly forty years of his life as a fascist politician serving one of Europe’s longest-lived dictatorships. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

'Best Book Ever'
Having worked seven Olympic Games this book still proved insightful to my first {Korea in '88}.I knew a lot of what was being stated, but the detail and sources of information gathered for this book was outstanding.Hats off to the authors for doing a great job.

The Olympics have changed and although there is still some issues with the 'Club' things are a lot better.I hope that they continue to get weeded out and the Games return to how and whom they should be for...the athletes and the fans.

It contains breathtaking information
After reading Dishonored Games my head was spinning for a while. I knew that multinationals are heavily involved in sports today but I never expected the magnitude as displayed in the book. The unbelievable behaviorof the Olympic committee that sold out the Olympic idea should be commonknowledge, just as Samaranch's political past. When you finfish the bookyou'll be excited to learn that there is a sequal, called New Lords Of TheRings which is just as informative. Too bad Amazon doesn't have this titleyet.

Frightening. It will change your ideas about "sports."
Dishonored Games, as the title implies, is about how the Olympic system has been corrupted by big business and international politics. Yes, this is a subject we hear about often enough these days, but Simson and Jennings take it all the way. The central figure of the book is International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch, about whom most of us (including myself) know absolutely nothing. Samaranch, it turns out, served under the fascist Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, an ally of Hitler. After WWII, Samaranch governed the Catalonia district, where Barcelona is the capitol, and it was he who made sure that those who questioned the government were tortured or were "disappeared." When Franco died in 1977, Samaranch was run out of the country in disgrace. But he had gained much of his power through the manipulation of national sports, raking in the money that comes with that territory. He had made many friends in the international sports community, and by 1980, he had gotten himself "elected" President of the IOC. Having the Olympics in Barcelona was in many ways Samaranch's way of "retaking" the city. There is also the story of Horst Dassler, the German businessman who founded Adidas and used the company to create the system of product endorsement which has come to symbolize the death of the "art" of sports today. Together with Samaranch and other sports dignitaries, Horst's business heirs manipulate elections and other government affairs the world over, through bribery, favor-trading and even prostitution, to fill the already bursting coffers of the IOC. It is all incredibly frightening. The only problem with the book is its style. Simson and Jennings are obviously very angry over the whole subject, and that anger comes across a little too strongly. But their frustration is understandable. In the introduction, they write, "To our surprise it has turned out to be the most difficult investigation we have ever undertaken. In recent years, we have written, or made TV documentaries, about the Mafia, the Iran-Contra affair, terrorism, corruption within Scotland Yard and other dark areas of public life. The world of Olympic, amateur sport has proved to be the hardest to penetrate. Never before have we found it so difficult to obtain on-the-record interviews, documents and original sources. It is a secret, elite domain, where the decisions about sport are made behind closed doors, where money is spent on creating a fabulous life-style for a tiny circle of officials, where money has been siphoned away to offshore bank accounts and where officials preside forever, untroubled by elections." Shortly after their book was released, Simson and Jennings found that the IOC had slapped them with criminal charges. Not in any of the 30 countries in which the book has been published, where democratic laws of freedom of speech exist, but in the IOC's home country of Switzerland. They must have been on to something ... Read more

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On August 26, 1960, twenty-three-year-old Danish cyclist Knud Jensen, competing in that year's Rome Olympic Games, suddenly fell from his bike and fractured his skull. His death hours later led to rumors that performance-enhancing drugs were in his system. Though certainly not the first instance of doping in the Olympic Games, Jensen's death serves as the starting point for Thomas M. Hunt's thoroughly researched, chronological history of the modern relationship of doping to the Olympics. Utilizing concepts derived from international relations theory, diplomatic history, and administrative law, this work connects the issue to global political relations.

During the Cold War, national governments had little reason to support effective anti-doping controls in the Olympics. Both the United States and the Soviet Union conceptualized power in sport as a means of impressing both friends and rivals abroad. The resulting medals race motivated nations on both sides of the Iron Curtain to allow drug regulatory powers to remain with private sport authorities. Given the costs involved in testing and the repercussions of drug scandals, these authorities tried to avoid the issue whenever possible. But toward the end of the Cold War, governments became more involved in the issue of testing. Having historically been a combined scientific, ethical, and political dilemma, obstacles to the elimination of doping in the Olympics are becoming less restrained by political inertia.

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Product Description
‘The Olympic Games are the most prestigious sports event that a city can organise. They are the dream and fulfilment of young athletes. They also represent an extraordinary sporting, social, cultural and environmental legacy for the host city, the region and the country. The IOC is dedicated and committed to ensuring that its legacy is the best possible one. Professor Holger Preuss highlights the beneficial impact of the Olympic Games, financially and socially. Nowadays, hosting the Olympic Games can act as a catalyst for urban redevelopment, enabling changes, which might normally take several decades, to be completed over a seven-year cycle. This work, which highlights macroeconomic and business analysis related to over 30 years of Olympic Games’s history, will certainly be useful to share the knowledge and the various experiences in this field and prove a valuable tool for students and researchers who are interested in the Olympic Movement. It is through similar publications that the complexity of the Olympic Games and their economic impact can be further understood by the generations to come. I trust that each of you will enjoy reading this book and appreciate the work of its author.’
– From the preface by Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee

The Olympic Games is a unique event centering global interest on its host city. The financing of the Games has changed dramatically since Munich (1972) and economic interests and effects are increasingly paramount. It is therefore an anomaly that accurate economic analysis and comparison is not readily available. This is the most detailed study on the economic implications of recent and future Olympic Games over four decades.

Holger Preuss analyses the most important issues surrounding the hosting of the Olympics, and its wider economic effects, including:

• financial gigantism of the Olympic Games
• commercialisation and its control
• problems associated with achieving the Olympic requirements and standards
• the economic legacy of Olympic Games
• the feasibility of developing countries staging future Olympic Games
• detailed post Olympic analysis of financial figures
• conclusions on the economic related achievements of respective Organising Committees.

Academics and researchers of sports economics, international economics, international business and competition will all find this fascinating book of great value. The rigorous and authoritative analysis ensures valuable information will be available for future bid cities, and in a wider context, any city planning to bid for a major sporting event. It will also appeal to those interested in the broader context of the Olympic Games and concerned by their commercialisation and gigantism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent Contribution to the Literature of Organizing Olympics
I have worked with several Olympics organizing committees and this book makes an invaluable contribution to fairly limited, serious research on this subject. Although Preuss acknowledges the difficulties of comparing "apples" with "oranges" with different accounting methods used by different OCOG's, he manages to provide an excellent overview of the various components of revenue and costs which a future Olympics can anticipate. Well done! ... Read more

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Take advantage of the specific management knowledge used in running Olympic committees and sport federations around the world. Strategic and Performance Management of Olympic Sport Organisations offers valuable guidance on strategically evaluating, managing, and driving the performance of sport organizations.

Strategic and Performance Management of Olympic Sport Organisations was developed for use in the Executive Masters in Sport Organization Management (MEMOS) program. MEMOS, founded in 1995 by a network of European universities supported by Olympic Solidarity, aims to improve the management of sport organizations and provide a higher level of training for sport managers.

This book covers the first of three courses in the MEMOS program and emphasizes the importance of the history and development of the Olympic movement. It highlights new issues at stake as the Olympic movement evolves, and it helps readers to grasp the specific management framework of Olympic sport organizations and other sport federations, including voluntary work by its leadership and operating on a nonprofit basis.

Strategic and Performance Management of Olympic Sport Organisations defines critical strategic management principles and methods and teaches managers how to implement them to improve performance. Packed with case studies and examples of strategic plans used in Olympic sport organizations, readers will learn to

·identify and formulate a mission,
·conduct and assess external threats and opportunities as well as internal strengths and weaknesses,
·define organizational goals and steps to reach them, and
·evaluate the results of actions for future planning.

Strategic and Performance Management of Olympic Sport Organisations will help management successfully run Olympic committees and sport federations worldwide. ... Read more

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Product Description
“This is a thriller, a page-turner, a probing look into the inner workings of the assassination squads that Israel mobilized after the Munich massacre.”
–David K. Shipler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Arab and Jew

“Gratitude is due to Mr. Klein for his painstaking . . . book, the best one could possibly hope for.”
–Walter Lacquer, The Wall Street Journal

Award-winning journalist Aaron J. Klein tells, for the first time, the complete story of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and the Israeli counterterrorism operation it spawned. With unprecedented access to Mossad agents and an unparalleled knowledge of Israeli intelligence, Klein peels back the layers of myth and misinformation that have permeated previous books, films, and magazine articles about the “shadow war” against Black September and other related terrorist groups. In this riveting account, long-held secrets are finally revealed, including who was killed and who was not, how it was done, which targets were hit and which were missed. In the end, Klein shows that the Israeli response to Munich was not simply about revenge, as is popularly believed. By illuminating the tactical and strategic purposes of the Israeli operation, Striking Back allows us to draw profoundly relevant lessons from one of the most important counterterrorism campaigns in history.

“[Klein] makes it clear why [the Munich attacks were] a pivotal event in the evolution of global terrorism.”
–Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“A drama-filled look at the murders and Israeli reprisals.”
–Billy Heller, New York Post (“Required Reading”)

“A real thriller that will unnerve as much as it captivates.”
–Laurence Washington, Rocky Mountain News ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Armed Force is sometimes the only moral and practical response to evil
When it comes to the story of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre and its aftermath there is fact and there is fiction. The fictional element was illustrated by filmmaker Steven Spielberg's Munich. He claimed the film was `inspired by real events' but it 's plot lines was implausible, not to mention the subjective political posturing and sanctimonious moralising. Funnily enough, left-wing Israeli journalist Aaron Klein has produced a thoughtful and balanced factual account of the Olympic slaughter and the Mossad counter-terrorist campaign that decimated the PLO's `Black September' unit that perpetrated the attack. Klein is an IDF reservist intelligence officer, and he has obviously put his spooky connections to good use.

Spielberg based his film on a widely discredited book relating the Walter Mitty fantasies of a Mossad-wannabe. By contrast, Klein interviewed most of the major Israeli players who planned and executed the operations against Black September. And just as in the craft of intelligence itself, excellent sources provide excellent information. While Munich-the-movie is a case of garbage-in-garbage-out, Klein provides us with an accurate portrayal of precisely what the Israelis did, how they did it, and for what purposes it was done. The angst and disillusionment that afflict Spielberg's fictional Israeli undercover agents are nowhere to be seen in Striking Back. During an interview with the 7:30 Report, Klein explained that the Mossadniks, in fact, were firmly imbued with a sense of the righteousness of their cause: I spoke with more than 50 veterans of Mossad and military intelligence. There was no remorse, no second thoughts. They were proud; most of them were proud of what they did and they are still proud of what they did. And in my personal opinion, rightly so!

The opening chapter of Striking Back relates how in August 1992, almost 20 years after the Munich Olympics, a Mossad team shot Atef Bseiso dead on a Paris street. By that time, Bseiso was the PLO's liaison to the French internal security service, but in 1972 he played a key role in the Black September unit that carried out the Munich massacre. And for that he eventually paid the price. Klein's narrative portrayal of Bseiso's death kicks off a fascinating and not uncritical blow-by-blow account of the undercover war that Mossad waged against Black September in the wake of the Olympic massacre. But the real virtue of Striking Back is found in its balanced discussion of the strategic and operational rationales for the campaign. Certainly a natural desire for vengeance contributed to Mossad's relentless pursuit of the Munich killers and their dispatchers. But Klein clearly outlines that conventional military considerations of deterrence and attrition played an even more important role in Israel's decisionmaking process.

By eliminating the Black September command and control network, Israel believed it could deplete the pool of terrorist expertise that was available for future attacks. And let's not forget the ancient principle of good, old fashioned deterrence through intimidation. On 06 April 1973, a Special Forces team from the IDF's elite Sayeret Matkal unit raided PLO facilities in downtown Beirut, killing three senior PLO leaders in their quarters. Combined with the Israeli retribution campaign in Europe this operation terrified the PLO's senior echelons. Every minute that Arafat and company spent worrying about their own safety was a minute that they could not devote to planning offensive operations against Israel. Klein writes: `The numbers show a steep slide in the frequency of terror attacks against Israelis and Israeli institutions abroad from 1974 to the present.' He continues: there is `near unanimous agreement' within the Israeli intelligence community that this decline was largely attributable to the mayhem inflicted upon Palestinian terrorist groups by the post-Munich undercover campaign. IDF Brigadier General Ido Nehushtan recently reiterated this doctrine during a discussion about Israel's counter-terrorism strategy during the current conflict with the Palestinians: A basic lesson we learned is the importance of preemption. We cannot wait until suicide bombers or terrorists make their way to the target, or rockets are launched at our cities. When pursued where commanders and planners are lurking at their hideouts in the cities, we dramatically reduced the number of terror attacks in our population centres.

Don't try telling that to Steven Spielberg. At the end of Munich-the-movie, the filmmaker clumsily attempts to unive rsalise his sanctimonious moralising about the supposed invariable futility of responding to violence with violence. In a kitschy final scene, the camera focuses on a Manhattan skyline in which the twin towers of the World Trade Centre loom large in the background before the camera fades. But when it comes to weighing the Hollywood theorising of Steven Spielberg against the fact-based logic conveyed by Aaron Klein there is no real contest. While the Tinseltown version of events is suitable for an afternoon of mindless entertainment in a vacuum of false moral equivalence, the message of Striking Back resonates with those who
understand that lethal armed force is sometimes the only moral and practical response to evil

This book covers all the angles
This book is not a written counterpart to the movie "Munich". This book goes into much deeper detail on all the parties involved in the Munich Massacre and the subsequent events that followed years and even decades later. It's well put together and easy to read with enough spy/assassin stuff to keep you moving to the next chapter.

Striking Out
"Striking Back" is an incoherent and repetitive description of various assassinations carried out by Israeli military and intelligence authorities in the wake of the killing of Israeli athletes and coaches at the 1972 Olympics.The author's research might be impressive -- he implies that much of the material in the book was never publicly stated before -- but he has no ability to present it in an interesting way.

The chapters are short, and most of them cover one assassination. They all start to sound alike after a while. And there's little context to them.If you already know a lot about Israeli politics and history, perhaps the book is more meaningful. But I doubt it, as it's far from a sophisticated book. It's definitely aimed at the casual reader about the modern Middle East.

The author tries to make some assessment of the value of assassinations as a strategy, but he doesn't do enough on that account, either.
... Read more

Product Description
The word "athletics" is derived from the Greek verb "to struggle or to suffer for a prize." As Nigel Spivey reveals in this engaging account of the Olympics in ancient Greece, "suffer" is putting it mildly. Indeed, the Olympics were not so much a graceful display of Greek beauty as a war fought by other means.
Nigel Spivey paints a portrait of the Greek Olympics as they really were--fierce contests between bitter rivals, in which victors won kudos and rewards, and losers faced scorn and even assault. Victory was almost worth dying for, the author notes, and a number of athletes did just that. Many more resorted to cheating and bribery. Contested always bitterly and often bloodily, the ancient Olympics were not an idealistic celebration of unity, but a clash of military powers in an arena not far removed from the battlefield. The author explores what the events were, the rules for competitors, training and diet, the pervasiveness of cheating and bribery, the prizes on offer, the exclusion of "barbarians," and protocols on pederasty. He also peels back the mythology surrounding the games today and investigates where our current conception of the Olympics has come from and how the Greek notions of beauty and competitiveness have influenced our modern culture.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellence in Research
I cannot praise enough the excellence of Nigel Spivey's research and presentation involved with the ancient Olympics.

The craftsmanship of his narrative is first-rate and there is a refreshing candor and lack of romanticizing regarding this event and the times surrounding it.

Mr. Spivey may be remembered from his presenting of "The Queens and Kings Of England" on the Biography Channel.He is a charming host on this particular documentary and one can see his sincere interest in putting forth well done research in a way to include the viewer outside the convention of a professor ponticificating to his classroom.

A perfectly wonderful book by a perfectly wonderful writer!

Thomas Lee

Thank God They're Going to England, Not New York!
The anicent Greeks at Adelphia considered the original Olympics a 'civilized mode of war without the shooting.'The aim was winning at any cost (like American politics today), as the losers were called and looked down on as failures in disgrace.He dwells on boy athletes and shows a marble statue of the naked David minus one arm and a hand.

Why did the early Greek athletes compete naked?Did it have something to do with sex or did they have perfect bodies?Why did the Romans change the games in Olympia and make it more civilized?There the Greeks raised their sporting prowess to heroic status.

The historian, Bettany Hughes, wrote that this book shows "a number of hand-picked historical characters (which) bring us face to face with ... the ruthless business of winning the games."Nigel Spivey includes a photo of the naked wrestlers in marble.This is an erotic book.The poster for the 1912 Stockholm Olympics shows a naked combatant.

There is a drawing of the Olympic Zeus in the original Parthenon, a huge six-story-tall fixture similar to the modern Athena statuary in the Nashville, Tennessee, Parthenon.He has written many books among which are PANORAMA OF THE CLASSICAL WORLD and UNDERSTANDING GREEK SCULPTURE. ... Read more

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Centennial Olympic Games: Atlanta 1996 ... Read more

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Located in the United States, NBC (National Broadcasting Company) is the biggest and most powerful Olympic network in the world, having won the rights to televise both the Summer and the Winter Olympic Games. By way of attracting more viewers of both sexes and all ages and ethnicities than any other sporting event, and through the production of breathtaking spectacles and absorbing stories, NBC’s Olympic telecasts have huge power and potential to shape viewer perceptions.

Billings’s unique text examines the production, content, and potential effects of NBC’s Olympic telecasts. Interviews with key NBC Olympic producers and sportscasters (including NBC Universal Sports and Olympics President Dick Ebersol and primetime anchor Bob Costas) outline the inner workings of the NBC Olympic machine; content analyses from ten years of Olympic telecasts (1996-2006) examine the portrayal of nationality, gender, and ethnicity within NBC’s telecast; and survey analyses interrogate the extent to which NBC’s storytelling process affects viewer beliefs about identity issues. This mixed-method approach offers valuable insights into what Billings portrays as "the biggest show on television".

Customer Reviews (1)

A Complete Exploration of the Olympic Production Process
I had the pleasure of reading Olympic Media: Inside the Biggest Show on Television by Andrew Billings two months before the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Being a sports enthusiast and Olympics junkie, the only fix for my Beijing addiction prior to this book was the occasional Olympic Torch tidbit on the evening news or a visit to the official website of the IOC. Thankfully, Olympic Media came along in time to sufficiently whet my appetite for the largest sports spectacle in the world.

What Billings has accomplished in his examination of NBCs telecast of the Olympics is remarkable. He offers in-depth observations and analyses of the telecast by focusing on organizational processes, production influences, and viewer perceptions of this cultural (and often political) megaevent. In terms of cultural significance, the only other sporting event that rivals the importance of the Olympics is World Cup soccer. It is rare to find a study that explores the media effects process from inception (i.e., NBCs eight-year pre-production planning) to reception (i.e., viewer reactions to and perceptions of the Games). In just under 200 pages, Billings conducts interviews with the gatekeepers and storytellers at NBC Sports, performs content analyses of primetime coverage from the last 10 years of Olympic telecasts with a focus on themes of nationality, gender, and ethnicity, and analyzes the cultivating and agenda-setting effects of the Olympics telecast using survey data collected from viewers.

Chapter 1 opens with a historical review of the Olympic telecast. From the Berlin Summer Games in 1936 to the Torino Winter Games in 2006, he provides a review of key moments in Olympic telecast history. He concludes the chapter with sufficient rationale for this study (viewership, political influence, prestige, viewer attitudes) and his methods of analysis, and concludes with a preview of the remaining chapters.

Chapters 2 and 3 are quite possibly the most interesting chapters in the book because they contain interviews conducted with NBCs producers and reporters juxtaposed with relevant facets of the television production and narration process. Specifically, in chapter 2, Billings offers analyses and excerpts of his interviews with three producers and one director, most notably Dick Ebersol, executive producer of the Olympic telecast. Many questions concerning the evolution of the Olympic broascast are answered by Ebersol in this chapter, including decisions that directly impact viewership (e.g., Ebersol's decision to eliminate boxing from primetime). In chapter 3, Billings presents analyses and excerpts of interviews with seven NCA sportscasters including Bob Costas, primetime anchor, and Jim Lampley, the weekend/late-night anchor. For example, answers from Costas and Lampley to questions concerning "profiles and promotion" of prominent athletes that withdraw from competition or fail to win medals were illuminating and entertaining. Once again, Billings effectively synthesizes questions concerning the storytelling process with relevant, meaningful answers from a variety of sportscasters, many of which are former, multi-medal-winning Olympians.

Read more on this review in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Communication Studies, published by Marquette. ... Read more

Product Description
A modern-day tale of Greek mythological folly, this story follows the spoiled and vain Hera, who yearns for a family at any cost, as she pursues macho Zeus, still on the prowl in the 21st century. Meanwhile, Zeus, having given a family some cursory effort, is attempting to find himself in wine, women of all descriptions, and male rituals engaged in by his very own new age cult. Blind passion is truly a disaster when it involves the gods, leading to broken hearts, shattered dreams, and entomologically enhanced offspring. It is left to an unlikely band of mortals and one determined water nymph to somehow rein in the Olympian chaos.
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Customer Reviews (6)

not one likable character
I never thought I cared much about whether characters were likable or not, but having recently finished Olympic Games, I can say now I really missed having SOMEONE I cared at all about.The premise is clever and the author writes extrememly well; the book starts, after a couple of prologues, with the sad story of a naive naiad seduced and abused by Zeus, but even this wronged character is not sympathetic in any way.Nor are any of the other characters who enter into the story.I only wanted ONE who was a decent and intelligent human being (or god)!It was not to be.I found myself plodding through the chapters and relieved when the book was done.The ending did tie up loose ends, but I didn't really care what happened to any of the characters.

I enjoyed Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips far more.I liked the writing and may well look for something else by this author.

Surprisingly good
This is Leslie What's first novel, but you won't know it just by reading this book. It's promising, immensely witty, and well-written. In my opinion, this book is even better that What's shorter works, which are good enough in it's own way. Highly recommended.

A witty, dazzling work of fantasy with a twist
Olympic Games is an enthralling debut novel following the games of ancient Greek Gods in modern-day New York City. Zeus still can't keep his lust in check after thousands of years, and Hera is eternally on a jealous rampage, while an unlikely band of mortals and a determined water nymph with little to lose must challenge the reigning deities at their own games. A witty, dazzling work of fantasy with a twist, that paints cosmic powers as all too fallable and human.

Paradigm shifts
It is a rare find, indeed, to enjoy good writing in the world of fantasy.Leslie What's book sang to me start to finish.I loved the way she turned the greek gods on their heads and made them thoroughly unlikeable.What fun!Her character development was sharp and just perfect.And what characters!I'm always searching for that laugh-out loud experience in text form and Leslie's work was no disappointment.I've read her short stories with the same reaction - completely fun and sometimes even thought-provoking.Kiss sterotypes goodbye when you read Leslie What's work.And how grateful I am to find an author with enough courage to be quirky.Thank you, Leslie, for bringing us such an enjoyable read.

Let the games begin!!!
This is a terrific first novel by a wonderful writer! I was charmed & thrilled by her cast of characters. She makes you laugh with them and sometimes at them! The plot gets thick as a greek myth & the pages practically turn themselves. I can't wait for her next book!!! ... Read more