From statistical databases to story archives, from fan sites to the real-time reactions of Twitter-empowered athletes, the digital communication revolution has changed the way fans relate to LeBron's latest triple double or Tom Brady's last second touchdown pass. This book analyzes the parallel transformation in the field of sport history, showing the ways powerful digital tools raise vital philosophical, epistemological, ontological, methodological, and ethical questions for scholars and students alike. Chapters consider how philosophical and theoretical understandings of the meaning of histo ... More

From statistical databases to story archives, from fan sites to the real-time reactions of Twitter-empowered athletes, the digital communication revolution has changed the way fans relate to LeBron's latest triple double or Tom Brady's last second touchdown pass. This book analyzes the parallel transformation in the field of sport history, showing the ways powerful digital tools raise vital philosophical, epistemological, ontological, methodological, and ethical questions for scholars and students alike. Chapters consider how philosophical and theoretical understandings of the meaning of history influence engagement with digital history, and conceptualize the relationship between history making and the digital era. As the writers show, digital media's mostly untapped potential for studying the recent past via media like blogs, chat rooms, and gambling sites forge a symbiosis between sports and the internet while offering historians new vistas to explore and utilize. In this new era, digital history becomes a dynamic site of enquiry and discussion where scholars enter into a give-and-take with individuals and invite their audience to grapple with, rather than passively absorb, evidence. Timely and provocative, this book affirms how the information revolution has transformed sport and sport history—and shows the road ahead.