Michael Serazio's monograph critically examines the complex entanglements among professional sports, popular culture, consumer culture, party politics, and journalism. By adopting a Durkheimian framework, he shows how sports is uniquely positioned to serve a purpose in all these areas. Through direct interviews and media analysis, Serazio interrogates sports culture. The reader is left with a better understanding of the place of sport in American culture. It is impossible to be a fan without complications after reading this book.

In describing THE POWER OF SPORTS by Michael Serazio, the publisher says, "On Sundays in September, more families worship at the altar of the NFL than at any church." Serazio, an award-winning former journalist and current faculty member at Boston College, uses six chapters to explore sports' role as "Media and Spectacle in American Culture." THE POWER OF SPORTS is an ambitious work filled with statistics and numerous quotes. Serazio has obviously devoted significant resources to his research and allocates more than a quarter of the text to notes, index and an appendix which lists dates and length of interviews with over fifty individuals. Sports fans and those students whose Junior Theme research is centered on the sports industry would do well to consult this work.