Air Ball

Air Ball: American Education’s Failed Experiment with Elite Athletics, by John R. Gerdy (2006)

Gerdy has seen college athletics from every angle. He played basketball at the college and professional level, and then went on to work as a legislative assistant for the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and as an associate commissioner for the Southeastern Conference.

In Air Ball, his fourth book on American sport, Gerdy doesn’t rehash the scandals that have plagued big-time Division I football and basketball programs. The problems within the current system are well documented and affect institutions at all levels, he says, as he details the many ways the current state of college athletics undermines higher education and the broader community.

The author believes that college athletics too closely mirror the professional game, robbing students of study time as well as a chance to truly integrate with the campus as a whole. The focus on elite sport teams also pushes many to watch sports rather than actively participate at a time when obesity has emerged as one of society’s greatest challenges.

The author proposes a number of specific reforms that are certain to promote heated discussion. Gerdy proposes that game times be pushed up, even when that means that some teams won’t be able to play in prime time. He proposes a limit on eligibility in the freshman year to allow new students the opportunity to focus on academics and to transition to college life. Gerdy’s most drastic measure is the elimination the athletic scholarship. The current arrangement is too close to the professional model of pay for play, he says. This, along with the high costs of travel, coaches’ salaries, and tutors for athletes, undermines the credibility of institutions of higher education.

The author addresses a number of the sacred cows of coaches and athletic directors, among them the assertion by some that reform would lead to a drastic decline in the quality of play. He believes that these concerns are secondary to the issue of determining whether athletics compliment the mission of the university. Gerdy asserts that nothing less than a complete transformation of sports programs will accomplish this. Failing that, they must be abolished altogether.

Informing and provocative, Gerdy’s book should be required reading for educators, college administrators and anyone else who is concerned about the state and role of athletics in higher education. Highly recommended.

Beer and Circus

Beer and Circus, by Murray Sperber (2001)

The author makes a sweeping indictment of higher education in this, his fourth book about college athletics. Sperber argues that large public institutions have become too big to provide a quality education to their charges. The author describes an arms race of college athletics that places a huge emphasis on building strong teams and getting schools placed in prominent athletics conferences. Administrators, he says, pin their hopes on national championships in the hopes that this will lead to increased visibility, and enrollment, for the university.

Not only does this approach rob students of a quality education, says Sperber, but it gambles with taxpayer money as these big programs rarely pay for themselves. Another point in the volume is that the party scene that accompanies these sporting events is very damaging to students. There were plenty of stories in the Indiana Daily Student during my time in Bloomington that highlighted the drinking and partying of students. Nationally, the most high-profile cases have been deaths from alcohol poisoning. The author makes a strong, if evident, case that universities should be providing a good education, rather than a great tailgating experience, to their students.

Originally reviewed 2/11/04

Stay tuned this week for my review of John R. Gerdy's Air Ball: American Education's Failed Experiment With Elite Athletics

Changing Faces

Changing Faces, by Kimberla Lawson Roby (2006)

Roby writes about three professional women who deal with the ups and downs of work, family and romance. Whitney wages a war on her weight while Taylor faces a stagnant relationship and a frightening medical condition. Charisse’s marriage is in trouble as she struggles with her temper and controlling nature.

While each of these characters has challenges the author wastes little time in revealing the layers that lurk beneath the surface. As the title implies, all of the women face major life changes throughout the course of the story. For Charisse rage, greed and lust are disguised by a demanding and pious facade. As the chapters progress, alternating between characters in the first person, the straightforward language belies the surprising amount of pathology in these lives.

While the book’s readability is one of its biggest strengths the laid back tone is also a major weakness. The writing simply lacks the depth of emotion and a sense of growing psychological dissonance to captivate the reader. As the novel reaches a fantastic climax some readers will be caught off guard by the author’s method for finishing the story.

Roby writes with an easy manner that suggests lighter fare than what happens here. Changing Faces has some good kernels but fails to come together into a cohesive whole.

Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace

Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace: Surviving Under Saddam, Dying in the New Iraq, by Michael Goldfarb (2005)

This book is Goldfarb's tribute to the late Ahmad Shawkat, a Kurdish translator who worked with the author when he was covering the war in Iraq for WBUR radio. A London-based reporter for the American public radio station, Goldfarb first met Shawkat shortly before the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.

Shawkat was more than a man who knew the language. As an intellectual, he had moved in revolutionary circles for many years, agitating against Hussein's government. He had been captured, imprisoned and tortured on a couple of occasions and had once even met the dictator. As a Kurd, he rejected the sectarian leanings of many of his own people in favor of a single, unified nation. As Goldfarb explains, Shawkat was uniquely qualified not only to translate words but to provide context to what the reporter was seeing and hearing on the streets of a new Iraq.

The first section of the book follows the two men as Goldfarb reports on the war. (His dispatches can be heard on WBUR's Inside Out web site.) The last section is the story of Shawkat's tragic death at the hands of an assassin and the months after when the author returns to the war-torn country. The middle section, Ahmad's Life, is the author's reconstruction of his translator's life story. From his early years as a bookish boy through college and into adulthood, Shawkat was a man who never stopped searching for answers.

Goldfarb's view on the war itself may surprise some readers. Although he is very critical of the Bush administration's handling of the post-war situation, the reporter initially supported U.S. action there in the belief that the Iraqi people could be freed. He and Ahmad speak about this shared belief at length, alternately dreaming of the future and despairing as the country falls into chaos and internal strife in the months after the fall of Saddam's army.

Michael Goldfarb describes the qualities he looks for in a translator. Often, he writes, he cannot find all of those things in one person. In Ahmad Shawkat, he finds a scholar, an intellectual, a writer, a patriot and at the end a close friend. Goldfarb tells a remarkable story, which could be difficult to read due to the fact that one knows how it ends. In spite of this, he produces a moving, poignant read from start to finish. Highly recommended.

Originally reviewed 2/20/2006

Why Lincoln Matters

Why Lincoln Matters: Now More Than Ever, by Mario M. Cuomo (2004)

"Conservatives and liberals alike should always resist the impulse to make Lincoln over in their own image," writes the former governor of New York, "but it would be even worse not to use him as he might be used." Cuomo makes a passionate case that the words and deeds of the nation's 16^th president are as relevant today as they were some 140 years ago.

The author uses quotes from Lincoln's speeches and letters to make his point, which is often to show that the former president would not approve of the current administration's policies. Pointing to Lincoln's income tax on the wealthy, Cuomo argues that Lincoln would not have cut taxes for the richest Americans in a time of war. The governor makes the case that Lincoln envisioned a progressive role in creating and expanding opportunity for all Americans.

Cuomo's point is harder to make when it comes to matters such as civil liberties in a time of national emergency and the nation's courts. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in 1862 and 1863 and while he implemented a number of reforms in the federal court system, Lincoln often clashed with the nation's highest court. Cuomo writes that Lincoln "did not think of the Supreme Court as the separate and independent branch of the government that it was supposed to be," rather he tried to make it "an extension of the presidency."

It is in the final pages that Cuomo uses Lincoln's words to construct an "address to Congress" for the year 2004. In it, Lincoln shows his disapproval for the war in Iraq. The former president also states that the current terrorist threat is not as a great as that which faced the nation during the Civil War.

Points such as the last make this a provocative read in places. While Cuomo clearly aligns Lincoln with modern liberals, people of all political stripes will get something out of this concise but cogent book.