'America's Athletic Missionaries': Political Performance, Olympic Spectacle and the Quest for an American National Culture, 1896-1912

摘要

In an era of massive immigration and intense debate over the constituent elements necessary for guaranteeing a unified national culture, many Americans identified sport as a crucial tool for building commonweal. At the same time, the creation of the modern Olympics provided the US with an opportunity to measure itself against other nations. A wide variety of commentators began to identify US Olympians as 'athletic missionaries', literal examples to both domestic and foreign audiences of the strength of American civilization. Interpretations of US victories held that American athletes won Olympic victories not because of superior athleticism but because they hailed from a superior society enriched by a 'melting pot' that turned immigrants into productive citizens. These discourses illuminated the early history of American efforts to craft patriotism at the Olympics.