Not since the 1960s have sports and politics been so intertwined in the public consciousness. Protests connected to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and the horrifying revelations within women's gymnastics, to name just two, have advanced the profile of athletes and the causes they represent like never before. As such, this is a propitious time for the publication of Frank Jacob's edited volume Sports and Politics: Commodification, Capitalist Exploitation, and Political Agency. The collection aims not only to show the intersection of sports and politics but also to highlight the ways that exploitation and corruption have shaped sports both past and present.
Section I focuses on the role of political corruption in sports. In his essay, Steven Riess details political corruption in Illinois connected to the horse-racing industry (notably harness racing). He finds that those politically connected advanced their interests in sports and that, oftentimes, prominent politicians pushed...
