Mortal Engines: The Science of Performance and the Dehumanization of Sport

Explains how human science and industrial technology have transformed sports, discussing the ways in which the empasis on training and development, psychological research, and drug therapies have dehumanized sports.

Athletes' use of steroids, testosterone and other drugs to boost performance reflects an obsesson with winning at any cost, observes Hoberman, who maintains that the age-old ideals of sportsmanship prevalent less than a century ago have been replaced by dehumanized, often brutal competition. This eye-opening study traces the efforts of scientists, trainers and doctors to adapt athletes to ever-increasing levels of stress. Chapters cover the birth of sports physiology around 1890; anthropological theories of racial variation; the politics of contemporary drug use; the myth of robotized communist athletes; and the shameful drugging, electroshock treatments and physical torture applied to racehorses. Hoberman, a runner for 20 years and a language professor at the University of Texas, cogently argues that modern sports psychology, based on the romantic myth that athletes can be liberated from inner blocks, has scarcely advanced beyond its 19th-century prototypes. He also blasts the Olympics for managerial indifference to athletes' drug use.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An ambitious and jolting, if occasionally turgid, investigation into the origins and wider implications of the contemporary union of science and sport. Blending cultural history with ethical alarm, Hoberman (Scandinavian and Germanic Languages/Univ. of Texas at Austin) identifies the emergence of sports science in 19th-century assessments of human capabilities and traces it through the developing disciplines of physiology and physical anthropology. Viewed as physically ``pathological'' subjects, athletes were initially free from outside intervention. Later--Hoberman's history gets a bit sketchy here--nationalist anxieties, pharmacological advances, and the interests of the athletes themselves created an ``obsessional'' climate in which human values were sacrificed for improved performance. Today, despite testing for 3,700 banned substances, ``it is clear that international controls cannot put an end to doping'': Some in the sports community have advocated legalizing all enhancements. A more alarming possibility, one ``touching on human identity itself,'' is future use of genetic engineering to improve athletic specimens. Although impressive in its range, the book's power is undercut by a dense, pedantic style marked by frequent repetition. Even so, there are well-placed attacks on, among other targets, the hypocrisy of the sporting world and the dubious claims of sports psychology. While possibly overstated, this is still a frightening expos‚ of scientific abuse indirectly sanctioned by an alternately indifferent and medal- hungry political and social environment. Not quite a world-beater--and a bit of a downer for an Olympic year--but worth the attention of anyone serious about the future of humanity in the sporting arena and beyond. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

"Gentlemen, start your engines!" is the cry that resounds annually at the opening of the Indianapolis 500. Hoberman's Mortal Engines symbolically parallels this cry, substituting human beings for machines. The author's premise is that athletes, trainers, and scientists have utilized performance-enhancing drugs, such as anabolic steroids, in a relentless, nearly obsessive quest for victory--without counting the cost in human lives. Much of the material contained in this startling account is not widely known; thus, it provides a much-needed base for understanding the limit to which athletes will extend themselves, sometimes unknowingly. The author occasionally tends toward sensationalism, emphasizing German practices and questioning the efforts of reputable scientists to improve athletic performance. Still, this book will be a useful addition to sports science collections.
- Albert Spencer, Univ. of Nevada , Las Vegas
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.