HIST 2500 - The Olympic Games: Ancient and Modern

This course will discuss the origins and contexts of the Olympic Games, both in Antiquity and Modern times, in a series of topically linked themes. These will deal with the social, political, economic, and cultural aspects of the Games in order to put them into their historical contexts. The themes will include questions of amateur athletics and professionalism, international politics, commercialism and the games, gender, growing cultural awareness and values, as well as literature and art.