The History and Politics of Motor Racing

"This expansive volume stands as the definitive scholarly work on the global motorsport industry to date. The broad scope of subject matter is comprehensive, providing significant theoretical and empirical insights into the complex dynamics shaping the relationship between motorsport and society."

— Mark Lowes, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, University of Ottawa, Canada

“This compelling collection deftly maps the social, political, and economic contours of racing from local grassroots events to such international spectacles as Formula One racing to provide much-needed, critical attention on motorsports—which to date have received insufficient scholarly attention.”

— Mary G. McDonald, Homer C. Rice Chair in Sports and Society, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

This book explores the history and politics of motor racing, one of the most popular and lucrative elements in the international sport industry. Written by a group of international scholars and motor racing specialists it discusses the sport’s origins, the relationship of motor racing to nation building and modernity (noting its links to fascism and dictatorship), the links between motor racing and the automobile industry, motor racing and the politics both of gender and of race, motor racing, the media and postmodernity, and motor racing, the spatial and globalization. This book speaks to scholars in history, politics, sport studies, the sociology of sport, sport management and cultural studies, along with the many lay readers who are interested in the relationship between motor sport and society.

Damion Sturm is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Management at Massey University (Auckland, New Zealand).With a specialisation in global sport media cultures (inclusive of celebrity, fan and material cultures), he recently co-edited Sport in Aotearoa New Zealand: Contested Terrain (with Roslyn Kerr, 2022), co-authored Media, Masculinities and the Machine (with Dan Fleming, 2011), and has published works on mediatisation, technological innovations and sporting events (Formula One, the Indy 500, Formula E, Formula One eSports, cricket, rugby league and the America’s Cup).

Stephen Wagg retired as Professor of Sport and Society at Leeds Beckett University, UK, in 2019. He is now an Honorary Fellow in the International Centre for Sport History and Culture at De Montfort University in Leicester. He has written widely on the politics of sport, of childhood and of comedy. His latest book is Cricket: A Political History of the Global Game 1945-2017 (2018).

David L. Andrews is Professor of Physical Cultural Studies in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA.  His research contextualizes sport and physical culture in relation to the intersecting cultural, political, economic, and technological forces shaping contemporary society.  His books include: Making Sport Great Again?: The Uber-Sport Assemblage, Neoliberalism, and the Trump Conjuncture (2019, Palgrave Macmillan), The Routledge Handbook of Physical Cultural Studies (2017), and Sport, Physical Culture, and the Moving Body: Materialisms, Technologies, Ecologies (2020).