Book review of "Good Sports: Australian sport and the myth of the fair go", Peter Kell, Pluto Press, Sydney, 2000, 97 pages, ISBN 186403-076-3

Abstract

[Extract] Just as Australians, usually politicians and expatriates, perpetuate the various myths regarding the 'Australian identity' such as the 'bush ethos', or the ubiquitous ANZAC spirit and the notion of the 'little Aussie battler', so many writers of essays on the history of Australian sport or its analysis tend to perpetuate the notion of Australia's apparent preoccupation with sport. Indeed, Kell starts his debunking of one myth, 'the fair go' by perpetuating this idea that, "Australians, to a remarkable extent are obsessed by sport."