Hi fate7,
Being a student myself, I can sympathise with your not being able to
find a starting point. I should say here that any information I post
relating to the book will be from 'net' sources, because I haven't
read it myself. I can, however, give you a few pointers on how to get
started writing an essay of the structure you require. Please don't
copy what I say directly, it's plagiarism!
Introduction -
Start of with something general about the book and it's subject -
"Colin Howell's 19?? (insert year) 'Blood Swear and Cheers' examines
the way in which sport has impacted upon the making of the modern
Canadian nation, and the way sport has developed from its amateur
rural roots in to the exciting professional sports of today. Howell
describes the way in which sport has shaped (whatever aspects of
Canadian culture it has shaped) through (insert relevant information
here). In this essay, I will (whatever you're required to do by the
question - detail Howell's analysis of a certain thing, critically
assess his analysis, etc.). Make sure you focus on doing something
specific, and *say* what you're doing - otherwise you'll confuse your
teacher and get yourself off track with writing.
Then, for the rest of the essay, you just do what you said you would
in your introduction! *Simple!* Find some relevant passages from the
book that apply to whatever the specific question is that you have,
arrange them in a way that presents a logical argument toward whatever
your conclusion is going to be, and voila!
Here are some comments on Howell's work that might help you out. I
found these using the search terms '+blood +sweat +cheers' in the
google search engine.
***
http://www.utppublishing.com/detail.asp?TitleID=2195
University of Toronto Press Scholarly Publishing
"Blood, Sweat, and Cheers looks at the contribution of sport to the
making of the Canadian nation, focusing on the gradual transition from
rural sporting practices to the emphasis on contemporary team sports
that accompanied the industrial and urban transition. The book also
analyzes sport's pre-eminent place in our contemporary
consumer-oriented culture, and the sometimes ambivalent contribution
of sport to a sense of Canadian identity.
Intended as an introduction to the way in which social historians
approach the history of sport, rather than as an exhaustive narrative
of our sporting heritage, Colin Howell introduces readers to a number
of important issues, including amateurism and professionalism, race
and ethnicity, regionalism and nationalism, the impact of British and
American sporting traditions upon Canadian sporting life, and the
contemporary meaning of sport in a globalizing capitalist economy. He
also investigates discourses about respectability and the display of
the body, gender construction and sexual identities, the changing
nature of the sporting marketplace over time, as well as the
involvement of spectators, the media, and the state in the production
of our national sporting life.
While theoretical in approach, Blood, Sweat and Cheers also looks at
the accomplishments of individual athletes, including Ned Hanlan,
Maurice Richard, Barbara Ann Scott, Wayne Gretzky, and Donovan Bailey,
as well as major sports teams, and covers a wide array of activities
from hunting, rodeo, and native sporting traditions to those
associated with the Olympic Games.
Colin Howell is Professor of History, Saint Mary’s University"
The above passage is copyright 2001 by the University of Toronto Press
***
http://www.utpjournals.com/jour.ihtml?lp=product/chr/832/blood14.html
Journals Division, University of Toronto Press
" Howell's book revolves around two central questions: 'What is
sport?' and 'What is it for?' He traces these questions through six
specific chapter themes that span the history of sport in nineteenth-
and twentieth-century Canada: Blood, Respectability, Money, Cheers,
Bodies, and the Nation. The first chapter outlines the nature of
rural, unorganized leisure in early nineteenth-century Canada. The
second provides an overview of the influence of British sporting
traditions and the cult of respectability so important to the
development of organized sport in the latter nineteenth century.
Howell's third essay details the influence of materialism and money by
discussing consumerism, professionalism, and the evolution of the
National Hockey League. The fourth and fifth themes in this book deal
with the role of spectators and gender formation in the development of
sport in Canada.
In my view, Howell's book broadens and extends the field of sport
history in two ways: the first dealing with classroom texts and the
second with the direction of the field. In terms of sport history
textbooks, instructors have had little to choose from. Indeed,
historians have not published a single survey text in the field of
Canadian sport history in the last ten years. Sport historians have
typically leaned on research monographs such as Alan Metcalfe's Canada
Learns to Play (1987), Colin Howell's Northern Sandlots (1995), and
Bruce Kidd's Struggle for Canadian Sport (1996) or edited compilations
from the late 1980s such as Don Morrow's Concise History of Sport in
Canada (1989) or Morris Mott's Sports in Canada: Historical Readings
(1989). Although each of these books has its own individual merit,
they all have classroom limitations in relation to topical focus or to
time period. Howell's Blood, Sweat, and Cheers offers the best
teaching survey text to date, but it must be reiterated that this area
of Canadian sport history remains sorely underdeveloped.
This book fills another important need: owing to its breadth and
inclusive nature, it provides much-needed leadership in the field of
sport history. Howell's view of sport is superbly integrated with
broader themes in Canadian social and cultural history. He brings the
strengths and weaknesses of the field to the reader's attention and
promotes discussion on topics in need of study, such as the cult of
hunting, hockey, or the issues surrounding capitalism and sport in the
latter nineteenth century. Although not as polished as Northern
Sandlots, this book is accessibly written and contains a clear
theoretical approach that focuses on the interconnection of sport,
capitalism, and cultural production. The absence of endnotes presents
academic limitations, but, overall, this book offers scholars new
insights in relation to historical interpretation and expands the
boundaries of the field.
How does Howell answer his two central questions? He answers the
first, 'What is sport?' by conceptualizing sport as a cultural
activity that both reflects and produces the movements and themes of
Canadian history. Howell conceives the second question, 'What is sport
for?' in a slightly different manner. He traces how Canadians used
sport to define themselves during the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries in relation to their nation, region, race, and class. Howell
views sport as lived cultural experience that spans both triumph and
tragedy in Canadian history. Indeed, the study of sport in the making
of modern Canada is the study of Blood, Sweat, and Cheers."
Published in Canadian Historical Review - Volume 80, Number 2, June
1999
Reviewed by Greg Gillespie University of Western Ontario (reproduced
on the above website)
***
If you need clarification on anything I have posted, please don't
hesitate to ask. I hope I have been of help to you. If you need to
have your essay proofread and cannot find anyone else to do it, please
email me shananigans@lycos.com - bear in mind, though, that I will
only be able to correct spelling/grammatical/'flow' errors and not
those relating to your conclusions about the book, seeing as I have
not read it. Don't forget to cite any sources you use properly!
Cheers,
shananigans-ga |
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