Rome had been selected to host the 1908 Olympic Games, but the impact of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906 on the Italian economy forced the Eternal City to withdraw. Rome would finally get a second chance to host the world's premier sporting festival in 1960, and XVII Olympiad, the fifteenth volume in The Olympic Century series, begins with the story of those Games.The 1960 Olympics were the first summer Games to be broadcast in North America, sparking massive interest in bot...

The VIII Olympiad, the eighth volume in The Olympic Century series, begins in the most extraordinary of cities at a most extraordinary time: Paris in the 1920s. Now the stuff of legend, it was a place where the likes of Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and Pablo Picasso discussed art and culture in the cafes by day and danced in the jazz clubs long into the night.Played out in front of this dazzling backdrop, the Games of Paris 1924 created its own legends. Paavo Nurmi, the Flying Fin...

In the immediate aftermath of World War I, Europe was devastated and exhausted from years of destruction and death. The VII Olympiad, the seventh volume in The Olympic Century series, begins with the story of how the Antwerp Games of 1920 used sport to bind the wounds war and restore hope for the future of mankind.Belgium suffered more than most countries during World War I, which ended in 1918, and the devastation was still clearly evident by 1920. But the book recounts how the de...

Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening has been the go-to resource for gardeners for more than 50 years, and the best tool novices can buy to start applying organic methods to their fruit and vegetable crops, herbs, trees and shrubs, perennials, annuals, and lawns. This thoroughly revised and updated version highlights new organic pest controls, new fertilizer products, improved gardening techniques, the latest organic soil practices, and new trends in garden design.

How to get the best of shoddy shops, crooked car-dealerships, and heartless HMOs--without having to hire an attorney.The Miss Manners of the consumer kvetch shows readers how to go postal, with complaint letters designed to melt the heart and sting the conscience of the most obdurate, negligent, or customer-hostile corporations.Drawing on her experience as a pen-for-hire for irate consumers--and on the advice of clients, attorneys, and CEOs--Ellen Phillips shows readers:

Sporting greatness is defined by more than just a haul of gold medals or championship titles. They help of course, especially if, like Usain Bolt, an athlete redefines what is possible in terms of world records or, in the case of Mark Spitz or Steve Redgrave, demonstrates a sheer dominance of their sport.But greatness is is everything else besides, the mixture of emotion, endurance, excellence and vulnerability that sport brings - as well as the controversy it sometimes stirs - that creates t...

**Winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award.From the ancient Greeks to today’s festival of sponsors – this is the definitive sporting, social and political history of the Olympic Games.'An excellent, pacy, anecdote-studded history of the modern Games' – The Times**The Olympic Games have become the greatest show on earth. But how was such a ritual invented? Why did it prosper and how has it been so utterly transformed?In The Games

From its beginnings in Ancient Greek antiquity, right up to its arrival in Great Britain, the home of so many modern sports and favoured pastimes, the Olympic Games have always been a grand and exciting spectacle, whether you're watching a no-holds-barred wrestling match or a mesmerising, freewheeling gymnast. 'The Olympics, A Very Peculiar History' gives an overview of the strange, the unbelievable and the downright bizarre events that have occurred over the many years that this esteemed ...

The Memory Man – a sobriquet earned for his uncanny ability to recall virtually any sporting trivia – not only gives us his entertaining and forensic insight into which sporting moments he believes can be justifiably described as in a Different Class, but sports fans will also be thrilled to finally discover who Jimmy Magee really thinks is the best of the best – or the most over-rated for that matter – in soccer, GAA, rugby, boxing, golf, athletics and many other sports. The maestro of me...

Dr. Gerald Gems is one of the premier sports historians in the world. In this book, the first video text in sport history, we can see videos of how ancient and modern games have been played. But he goes beyond the sport, looking at the cultural background in which the sports have been played. We see ancient sports from China, India and the Americas and we follow the evolution of sports through the medieval days and the Renaissance and into England, the birthplace of modern sports. We then ...

‘Eric Liddell deserves a definitive biography. This is it.’Sunday Times, Books of the YearFaster. Higher. Stronger. No one has embodied the ideals of the Olympic movement quite like Eric Liddell, star of the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire. After refusing to compete on religious principle in the event in which he was favourite, the 100 metres, at the 1924 Games in Paris, Liddell won an astonishing gold medal in the 400 metres. But inste...

Having previously tied the world record, Eddie Hart was a strong favorite to win the 100-meter dash at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany. Then the inexplicable happened: he was disqualified after arriving seconds late for a quarterfinal heat. Ten years of training to become the “World’s Fastest Human,” the title attached to an Olympic 100-meter champion, was lost in a heartbeat. But who was to blame?Hart’s disappointment, though excruciating, was just one of many subplots to the...