Sport and Recreation in Canadian History challenges earlier studies and recognizes inequities and privilege

WINDSOR, ON – December 10, 2020–HK Canada announces the release of a seminal new work in Canadian history.  Sport and Recreation in Canadian History asks readers to think differently about the historical Canadian experience and examines how past people, moments, and events continue to shape 21st-century sport.

Author and Editor Dr. Carly Adams, together with an extensive list of leading Canadian history contributors, have delivered a foundation for critical discussion about the importance of the past, highlighting prominent people who made a significant impact on Canadian sport history, and transformative events in Canadian history as they relate to specific themes such as gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, or ability.

“It has been an honour and a pleasure to work with these incredible contributors” says Dr. Adams. “Over the years, and throughout this process, they have challenged me to reconsider my own understandings of sporting histories. With this work, and building on the foundations laid by those before us, we forge a new path for sport history, challenging the next generation of sport historians to do likewise – to continue to know histories in new ways as part of the process of imagining more just futures.”

“It’s both illuminating and timely” adds Dr. Bruce Kidd, a leading voice in Canadian sport history. “Its third-generation contributors challenge earlier categories and trajectories, and they account much more sensitively and comprehensively for the racially and culturally diverse society that Canada has been. They prepare us for the post–Truth and Reconciliation Canada that we urgently need to understand.”

While this text focuses on sport and recreation practices on these lands now claimed by Canada, it is set within a larger historical context of interconnecting social and cultural practices to speak to the sustained tensions, complexities, and contradictions prevalent in Canadian society. It examines how gender, ethnicity, race, religion, ability, class, and other systems of oppression and privilege have shaped sport and recreation practices, with Canadian sporting culture reproducing many of the same oppressive systems that exist on the larger scale.

“We’ve been hopeful and working hard to publish this updated perspective in sport history” notes Jake Rondot, Managing Director at HK Canada. “Given the momentous cultural shift society is undertaking, the release of this discussion on Canadian sport history is incredibly timely. It’s a great honour that HK Canada can play a small part in the conversation, learning, and change, by supporting the work of this team led by Dr. Adams.”

Sport and Recreation in Canadian History is available at Human Kinetics Canada: https://canada.humankinetics.com, 1-800-465-7301, or info@hkcanada.com.

Human Kinetics is the premier information provider to the physical activity field, today producing textbooks, consumer books, software, videos, journals, online education courses, mobile apps, and more.  HK is proud to publish the most respected researchers and practitioners serving physical activity fields on several continents, and to partner with the leading scholarly institutions and professional organizations to ensure cutting-edge content development.